Xie Lei
Xie Lei (China, 1983) is a painter who has lived and worked in Paris since 2006. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. His works have been exhibited in numerous institutions: MO.CO, Montpellier; CAPC, Bordeaux; Villa Noailles, Hyères; Collection Lambert, Avignon; MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine; Fondation Langen, Neuss; Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris; Fondation Yishu 8, Beijing; Fondation d’entreprise Ricard, Paris. His works can be found in public and private collections such as Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, MAC VAL, Burger Collection and X Museum.
His project at Villa Medici
During her residency at Villa Medici, Xie Lei will develop a new body of work that questions Italian society, both historically and in its current state, in terms of sex, gender and identity. The project will focus on the image, examining the signs and symbols that this society transmits, misappropriates or invents in relation to what is left unsaid, tolerated, forbidden and transgressed. The ancient Romans did not make moral judgments about sex, and today Italy is the last country in Western Europe to have passed a law authorising the civil union of homosexual couples. With a new series of paintings, the artist will continue to question the content of the images and, at the same time, the representation.
© Portrait : Renaud Monfourny. Courtesy Semiose, Paris.
© Outsider, 2023, huile sur toile, 170 x 140 cm (photo : R. Fanuele) Courtesy de l’artiste et Semiose, Paris.
© Essence, 2022, huile sur toile, 37 x 29 cm (photo : A. Mole) Courtesy de l’artiste et Semiose, Paris.
© Adoration, 2022, huile sur toile, 50 x 40 cm (photo : A. Mole) Courtesy de l’artiste et Semiose, Paris.