Paris Photo 2023
November 9 – 12, 2023
JY-01202013-07252021, 2021. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
RR-08212010-05012021, 2021. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
MM-06292010-06292023, 2023. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
DJ-08182018-01172022, 2022. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
RK-08282018-01142022, 2022. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
ME-07182006-07072021, 2021. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
AK-08102008-05032021, 2021. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
YL-08302013-11192021, 2021. Archival pigment print. From the series Resident Aliens.
Facing North, Looking West, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Parents' Bedroom, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Rooms of Convergence, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Inside of My Drawer, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Space of Mutation, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
The Dining Room, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
The Living Room, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
My Desktop, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Worlds Within Worlds, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Behind My Door, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Freedoms Are On The Margin, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Opened Closets, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Windows of the Worlds, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Space of Ruptures, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Reanimated Bedroom, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
A Good Asian Boy, 2015. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
The Ideal Body, 2016. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
The Map of the World, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Two Locations, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Removal, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Guanyu Xu's photographic interventions offer an exploration of his complex personal history and identity; born and raised in China, Xu moved to the US in 2014. His work bridges the gap between the personal and political, highlighting the disparities and connections between the two nations, in which his intersectional experience of the US meets his conservative familial experience of China.
In his recent series, Temporarily Censored Home (2018-2019), Xu covertly created intricately layered photographic installations in his parents’ home in Beijing, queering the normativity of this heterosexual space. By inserting a vast array of both made and collected photographs, including images from family albums, adverts and editorials he collected as a teen, and portraits of himself and other gay men, Xu reclaims his home as a queer space of freedom and rebellion. In some rooms, photographs of varying sizes cover every visible inch, while in others oversized prints are draped over pieces of furniture or hanging from the ceiling. Doorways and windows are replaced with photographs to create dizzying perspectives in which the viewer is led to wonder what is real and what is not. These juxtapositions collapse space and time, pointing to the relationship between individual freedom and global political governance while aiming to dissolve the borders of opposition.
徐冠宇 Guanyu Xu (b.1993 Beijing) is an artist currently based in Chicago and Beijing. Influenced by the production of hegemonic ideology in American visual culture and his upbringing in Beijing, his practice extends from examining the production of power in image culture to the question of personal freedom and its relationship to political regimes. Xu negotiates this from his perspective as a Chinese gay man and an immigrant in the US. In his work, he migrates between mediums like photography, new media, and installation. These movements operate similarly to his displaced and fractured identity. In Xu's art practice, he strives to understand the politics between the U.S. and China, on both personal and transnational levels. Xu proposes a transnational position for viewers to examine and negotiate the interconnected oppressions in this contemporary moment of supposed freedom.
He is the recipient of the Chicago DCASE Artist Grant, CENTER Development Grant, Hyéres International Festival Prize, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition, and Kodak Film Photo Award. He has received artist residencies including ACRE (Steuben, WI), Light Work (Syracuse, NY), Latitude (Chicago, IL), Pioneer Works (New York, NY), and Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, China).
His works have been exhibited and screened internationally including the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; International Center of Photography, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Orlean Museum of Art, New Orleans; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. His works have been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Dazed, and China Photographic Publishing House.
A Trillion Sunsets: A Century of Image Overload
January 28 - May 2, 2022
Are there too many images in the world? Too many of the wrong kind? Too many that we don’t like or want or need? These feel like very contemporary questions, but they have a rich and fascinating history. A Trillion Sunsets: A Century of Image Overload takes a long look at our worries and compulsive fascination with the proliferation of photographic images.
The Long Dream
November 7, 2020 - January 17, 2021
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a renewed reckoning over racial justice and inequality, The Long Dream invites visitors to see the city of Chicago, the world, and themselves, through the eyes of more than 70 local artists whose work offers us ways to imagine a more equitable and interconnected world.
35th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories - Hyères
October 19, 2020
Guanyu Xu's work Temporarily Censored Home is chosen as the grand prize winner for the 35th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories - Hyères. The jury, presided over by Paolo Roversi, chose Xu's work from amongst ten finalists, drawn from a pool of 700 submissions and 50 nationalities.
