Xu Zhen was born in Shanghai in 1977, and graduated from the Shanghai Art and Crafts Institute in 1996. He is primarily a performance and conceptual artist, but is also known for his provocative sculptures. In all his work, he interrogates the accepted dichotomy between east and west, and he challenges notions behind the art market. So, for example, in 2013 he founded the MadeIn company, and turned himself, or rather his own name, into one of its branded products. The move was both a wry commentary on the commercialism of art, and a sincere acknowledgement of the fact that much of his output is collaborative, the work of many hands. He remains a leading figure in the Shanghai art world, where he functions as a long-standing broker, publisher, talent-spotter and curator.
Xu Zhen was named Artist of the Year at the Artnet Awards in 2016, ACC Best Young Artist of the Year in 2014 and Best Artist at the Contemporary Chinese Art Awards in 2004.
His work has been collected by many institutions and private collections including the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Centre Pompidou, Paris;
the Daimler Collection, Berlin; the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; the KLL Collection, Shanghai; the DSL Collection, Paris; the Hammer Contemporary Collection, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Tiroche Deleon Collection, Jaffa, Israel; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; UBS Art Collection, Zurich; Uli Sigg Collection, Switzerland; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Switzerland.
Xu Zhen has exhibited at biennales and triennales in Venice (2001, 2005), Lyon (2013) and Guangzhou (2012). Solo and group exhibitions have taken place at the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), ICP (2004), Mori Art Museum (2005), PS1 (2006), and Tate Liverpool (2007). Other exhibitions include Art of Change at the Hayward Gallery, London (2012); 4 Rooms, Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2014); Corporate, Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria (2015); In Light Of 25 Years – One of Us Is on the Wrong Side of History!, Witte de With, Rotterdam; Xu Zhen Solo Exhibition, Long Museum, Shanghai (2015); Chinese Artists in a Time of Turbulence and Transformation, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016).