Tianxing Xu (b. 1996, Shanghai, China), a visual artist, was trained in oil painting at the East China Normal University from 2014 until 2018. Tianxing visited Pratt Institute in 2016. Since 2019, he has been pursuing his M.F.A. in painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
He has actively participated in the art scene along the Southeast Coast, with a track record of solo exhibitions and inclusion in museum group shows. His work has earned several awards and found its place in various art collections. In 2023, he successfully completed his degree and held a solo exhibition in Savannah. Currently, he continues to advance his artistic career in collaboration with the Alan Avery Art Company Gallery in Atlanta.
He currently lives and works in New York.
If it is possible, I wish I wish my paintings could be clean and soft, and construct chaos with absolute order.
My current works began with memories of regret, unfulfilled promises, and panic. I present a collection of paintings, prints, installations, and artist’s books that serve as building plans for an imagined amusement park. Hidden inside the work is a mixture of over-burnt memories and stories stolen from others. From imitating that ideal in my mind, I reconstruct and simulate a story that never happened by dismantling the elements that comprise the meaning of the park. They are the pages ripped from a diary. The images from my memory appear overexposed and spotty, as if scorching sunlight has bleached their surface, prolonging my search for clarity in recollection.
This way of creation is both my self-healing of regret and absence and my self-reflection after studying Baudrillard’s interpretation of symbolism and simulation and his art criticism. In constant practice and thought, I try to find some clues and echoes in aesthetics and philosophy.
Beside painting, I also explore printmaking, installation, book making and integrate them into amusement park series and exhibitions. Studio practice is the core of my creativity, while actively collaborating with artists in other fields, teaching assistantships, and being a monitor of the printmaking studio have provided me additional perspectives on my creation.