XU, GUANYU

Guanyu Xu (Chinese, b. 1993)

The After Shower, 2015

Archival Pigment Print

12 x 15 inch image on 14 x 17 paper

Signed Edition of 30

Influenced by the production of ideology in American visual culture and a conservative familial upbringing in China, Guanyu Xu’s practice extends from examining the production of power in photography to the question of personal freedom and its relationship to political regimes.

In his long-term project One Land To Another, Xu presents a hybrid documentary/fictional narrative to examine the intersectionality of race, sexuality, and citizenship. Xu is interested in using his own body to disrupt the dominance of mainstream queer aesthetics which privilege a white, masculine homonormativity. Juxtaposing American landscapes with self-portraits that portray intimate moments between gay men, these constellations of photographs recontextualize queer imagery while presenting a transnational way of seeing.

Guanyu Xu is an artist currently based in Chicago. He is the winner of the Hyéres International Festival Prize (2020), PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award (2020), Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition (2019), and Kodak Film Photo Award (2019). His works have been exhibited and screened internationally at such venues as the Aperture Foundation, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Orleans Museum of Art; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Contemporary Photography; and New Orleans Museum of Art.