The artist
Xie LEI
Crédit photo : Margot Montigny
Born in 1983 in China
Xie Lei has lived and worked in Paris since 2006. He is represented by Galerie Semiose (Paris) and is a graduate of CAFA in Beijing and ENSBA in Paris.
As a painter, Xie Lei explores a language that conveys his sensitive universe and provides a space for experimentation, that explores the specificity of painting as a medium in the contemporary world. While grounded in reality, his work ventures into ambiguous, uncertain worlds, transformed by his imagination. Most of his paintings evoke troubled or unsettling situations, subtly connected to literary and cinematographic memories or drawn from the profound depths of emotion. His art focuses on the complexity of events and situations, and above all on their inherent ambiguities and tensions.
Xie Lei’s practice offers a different perception of time, encouraging the viewers to slow down their gaze and escape the intoxicating rush of acceleration and immediacy. In his most recent works, Xie Lei explores an intermediary world —between sleep and death, torture and eroticism. These pieces are marked by dark tones that transform however into luminous and powerful hues.
His work has been exhibited in numerous institutions: Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (FR); MO.CO, Montpellier (FR); CAPC, Bordeaux (FR); Villa Noailles, Hyères (FR); Collection Lambert, Avignon (FR); MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (FR); Langen Foundation, Neuss (DE); Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris (FR); Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris (FR). Xie Lei’s work can also be found in public and private collections such as Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, MAC VAL, Albertina Museum and X Museum. Xie Lei is a former resident at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (2020-2021), and a resident at the Villa Médicis in Rome (2024).
Learn more :
http://www.xie-lei.com/
