Xianwei Zhu

*1971 Qingdao, China

Peace and meditative power characterize Xianwei Zhu’s works and are longing for untouched nature. In addition to the Chinese tradition, his role models and inspiration are German Romanticism, the poems of Hölderlin and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich.

In his painting, Xianwei Zhu combines the tradition of Chinese-Daoist landscape painting with modern abstract technique and confidently moves on the border between the two seemingly opposite approaches. With a moving gesture, the artist opens intuitively emerging color areas from the abstract, from which he stylizes landscape spaces and in which he allows enigmatic objective details, architecture and isolated human figures to appear. By horizontally spreading it, the form and boundaries are taken away from the objective surfaces, so that the color spaces in muted tones of blue and white blur into one another like diffuse clouds and a fine poetic-meditative mood develops.

Exhibitions and art fairs

2024:

– Beyond Landscape, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– Caspar David Friedrich Center, Greifswald, Germany
– Welcome 2024, Bechter Kastowsky Gallery, Schaan, Liechtenstein
– Museum Hölderlinhaus, Lauffen, Germany

2023:

– Beyond Landscape, Bechter Kastowsky Gallery, Schaan, Liechtenstein
– #OrangeTheWorld, Gallery Kellermann, Düsseldorf, Germany
– The sun also rises, Gallery Kunst-Raum, Essen, Germany
– Out in the open, Gallery Schrade, Ulm, Germany
– Powerlong Art Museum, Shanghai, China
– TAG Art Museum, Quingdao, China

2022:

– Museum Angerlehner, Wels, Austria
– Gallery Schlichtenmaier, Stuttgart, Germany
– Everything is good, Gallery Vayhinger, Singen, Germany

2021:

– In a Landscape, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, China
– The whole world is green, Kunstverein Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany
– Art Museum, Beijing, China
– Gallery Schlichtenmaier, Stuttgart, Germany

2020:

– Inner Landscapes, Gallery Kunst-Raum, Essen, Germany
– Kulturbahnhof Starnberg, Munich, Germany

2019:

– To the sources, Municipal Gallery, Wangen im Allgäu, Germany
– Cloud Path, Gallery Kreissparkasse, Esslingen-Nürtingen, Germany
– Gallery Schlichtenmaier, Schloss Dätzingen, Grafenau, Germany

2018:

– Return to the roots, Gallery Schrade, Ulm, Germany
– ORF-Landesfunkhaus Vorarlberg, Dornbirn, Austria

2017:

– Beyond the silence, Gallery Kunst-Raum, Essen, Germany
– All the world is green, Riverside Museum, Beijing, China
– Cold mountain performance, Altes Feuerwerhaus, Stuttgart, Germany

2016:

– Gallery Bechter Kastowsky, Vienna, Austria
– Gallery Lan Space, Beijing, China

2015:

– Museum Angerlehner, Wels, Austria

2014:

– Offspace, Beijing, China
– Museum Angerlehner, Wels, Austria

2013:

– Villa Van Delden, Ahaus, Germany

2012:

– Contemporary Art Center, Qingdao, China
– PYO Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
– ArtFair, Los Angeles, USA
– Municipal Art Museum Singen, SIngen, Germany

2011:

– Asia top art, Beijing, China

2010:

– State Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart, Germany

2006:

– Art in Heppächer, Esslingen, Germany
– Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany

Collections and museums

– State Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
– Regional Council, Stuttgart, Germany
– Collection Museum Angerlehner, Wels, Austria
– Singen Art Museum, Singen, Germany
– Collection City of Ahaus, Ahaus, Germany
– Kreissparkasse Collection, Esslingen-Nürtingen, Germany
– Wemhöner Collection, Berlin, Germany
– Collection Bankhaus Ellwanger & Geiger, Stuttgart, Germany
– Collection Hypo Vereinsbank, Stuttgart, German

Awards

2018:

– Franz-Joseph-Spiegler-Prize, Schloss Mochental, Ehingen, Germany

2014:

– Art Prize of the Kreissparkasse, Esslingen-Nürtingen, Germany

Biography

Xianwei Zhu, born in Qingdao in 1971, is a wanderer between worlds, between Asia and Europe, Germany and China, representation and abstraction. From 1996 to 2000, he taught as a lecturer and professor at the University of Qingdao/China, at the Merzakademie Stuttgart, the Beijing Film Academy/China, the Yun Nan Art Academy/China and the Technical University of Dortmund.

Xianwei Zhu’s works have been exhibited in numerous museum exhibitions in China and Germany and are in well-known collections, including the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and the collection of the state of Baden-Württemberg.