Chinese artist Chen Shaoxiong has died aged 54. Chen, who was born in Shantou town in China’s Guangdong province, trained in ink art but broadened his creative expression into performance and collaborative practice. The autumn issue of ArtReview Asia contains the artist’s final interview. Chen was a founding member of artist group Big Tail Elephants who staged performances and underground exhibitions in China during the 1990s, before gaining recognition internationally. Chen also later formed artist group Xijing Men with Japan’s Tsuyoshi Ozawa and Korea’s Gim Hongsok. Due to the different languages spoken by the members, they communicated through sketches and written Chinese characters shared by all three languages.
Chen’s work has also been exhibited at MoMA PS1, the International Center of Photography in New York, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and Tate Liverpool. His work is also held in the permanent collections of M+ in Hong Kong, MoMA in New York, the Seattle Art Museum, Switzerland’s Guy and Myriam Ullens Foundation and elsewhere.
1 December 2016
