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.
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Xiao LuTides - 2 弄潮 - 2, 2019PhotographImage size: 77 x 120 cm
Framed size: 85 x 128 cm -
Xiao LuTides - 1 弄潮 - 1, 2019PhotographImage size: 77 x 120 cm
Framed size: 85 x 128 cm -
Xiao LuSkew - 2 傾斜 - 2, 2019PhotographImage size: 78 x 130 cm
Framed size: 86 x 138 cm -
Xiao LuSkew - 1 傾斜 - 1, 2019PhotographImage size: 78 x 130 cm
Framed size: 86 x 138 cm -
Xiao Lu15 Gunshots….from 1989 to 2003, 2003Photograph100 x 45 cm x 15 pieces
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Xiao LuPolar-1, 2016PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
120 x 80 cm -
Xiao LuPolar-2, 2016PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
120 x 80 cm -
Xiao LuPolar-3, 2016Photograph120 x 80 cm
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Xiao LuPolar-4, 2016PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
120 x 80 cm -
Xiao LuWedlock 1, 2009PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
115 x 168 cm -
Xiao LuWedlock 2, 2009PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
115 x 168 cm -
Xiao LuWedlock 3, 2009PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
115 x 168 cm -
Xiao LuWedlock 4, 2009PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
115 x 168 cm -
Xiao LuOpen Fire, 2004PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
126 x 138 cm -
Xiao LuOne -1, 2015PhotographOriginal Sizes Available:
100 x 83 cm
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 permanentcollectionsofmajorglobalinstitutions, TaikangArtMuseum,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.
