For our 25th anniversary exhibition, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is pleased to present “Xiao Lu: Against the Wind”, a powerful exhibition dedicated to the life, work, and enduring spirit of pioneering Chinese contemporary artist “Xiao Lu”.
Opening on October 22 from 6–8pm, with a live performance by the artist at 7pm, the exhibition traces Xiao Lu’s remarkable artistic journey, focusing on the history, struggles, and determination that have shaped her practice. Through a deeply personal and politically charged body of work, “Against the Wind” reflects Xiao Lu’s lifelong commitment to confronting social expectations, personal trauma, and the limitations imposed on women’s voices within art and society.
Xiao Lu is internationally recognized for her fearless approach to performance, installation, photography, and conceptual art. Her work has consistently challenged boundaries—between public and private, body and memory, vulnerability and resistance. “Against the Wind” brings together key aspects of her practice, offering audiences an intimate view into an artist who has repeatedly transformed adversity into acts of creative defiance.
The exhibition foregrounds Xiao Lu’s ongoing exploration of identity, autonomy, and survival. Rather than presenting struggle as defeat, “Against the Wind” reveals it as a generative force—one that has propelled the artist toward radical honesty and artistic courage. Her work speaks not only to her own lived experience, but also to broader histories of gender, power, censorship, and resilience.
At the heart of the opening evening will be a live performance by Xiao Lu at 7pm, offering visitors a rare opportunity to witness the artist’s presence and process in real time. The performance will extend the exhibition’s themes of endurance, confrontation, and transformation, creating a visceral encounter between artist, audience, and space. There will also be a Xiao Lu talk on Saturday 24 October at 11:30 am at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery.
“Xiao Lu’s practice is defined by an extraordinary strength of conviction,” said Katie de Tilly, director of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery. “Against the Wind- honors an artist who has never stepped away from difficulty, but instead has used it as the very material of her work. This exhibition is a testament to courage, persistence, and the power of art to speak when words are not enough.”
“Xiao Lu: Against the Wind” invites viewers to reflect on the force required to move against history, against silence, and against the wind—and to recognize in Xiao Lu’s work a profound statement of resistance, memory, and self-determination.
The exhibition will include a chronology of Xiao Lu’s practice as well as her iconic 15 Shots…From 1989 to 2003, Tides, Skew and video works of her performances.
ABOUT XIAO LU
Xiao Lu (born 1962 in Hangzhou, China) is a pioneering Chinese contemporary artist best known for her landmark 1989 installation and performance work, Dialogue. She graduated from the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1984, and later from the Oil Painting Department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1988, connecting her with the radical experimental '85 New Wave art movement.
On February 5, 1989, during the opening of the China/Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, artist Xiao Lu fired two shots into her installation, which featured two telephone booths and a mirror. The incident led to the temporary closure of the exhibition and Xiao’s brief detention. It has since become one of the most widely discussed moments in the history of Chinese contemporary art, with later interpretations placing it in relation to the broader social atmosphere of 1989.
Following these events, she moved to Sydney, Australia where she lived until 1997 when she returned to Beijing living and working there for then next 23 years before returning to Australia in 2021. From September 2025, she works between London and Beijing. Her works focus on strong feminist themes, bodily autonomy, gender equality, and her sensitive and opinionated observations of the society, expressed through provocative works and performances such as Sperm (2006), Wedlock (2009), and Purge (2013). Today, her influential works are held in the permanent collections of major global institutions, Taikang Art Museum, Beijing, China; Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China; Zhuzhong Art Museum, Beijing, China; Tate Modern, London, UK; MoMA, New York, USA; NGV, Melbourne, Australia; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia; White Rabbit Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia; Arario Museum, Seoul, South Korea.
