Guan Xiao: Teenager
Kunsthalle Wien
8 October 2025 – 11 January 2026
Jeanake, 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Midhight Pancake, 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Cyclemony, 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Installation view Guan Xiao: Teenager, Glitea, 2025, Kunsthalle Wien 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and Antenna Space, Shanghai
Photo by Markus Wörgötter
Kunsthalle Wien presents the first solo exhibition in Austria by Guan Xiao (b. 1983, Chongqing, China). Comprising an entirely new body of sculpture and painting, it takes what Guan Xiao describes as the ‘ambiguous life stage’ of the teenager as a starting point for works that reflect upon the currents, conflicts and absurdities of a society impacted by the values of capitalism and liberalism:
A teenager is typically thought to be impulsive, led by their intuition and open to possibilities, changes and uncertainty. They can be dramatic, riven with self-doubt. I see them as both challenging and conquering reality and these ideas echo through this body of work which has a lot to do with this conflicted state of change and uncertainty. – Guan Xiao
Installation view Guan Xiao: Teenager, Kunsthalle Wien 2025 © Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and Antenna Space, Shanghai;
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin/Munich
Photo by Markus Wörgötter
Installation view Guan Xiao: Teenager, Torso, 2025, Kunsthalle Wien 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist
Photo by Markus Wörgötter
Installation view Guan Xiao: Teenager, Torso, 2025, Kunsthalle Wien 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist
Photo by Markus Wörgötter
A large, furry A-Frame structure bisects the space, creating a tunnel at the centre of the exhibition. Animated by light, it harbours a collection of cast aluminium objects including scaled-up items of cutlery, a moka pot and a series of enlarged eggs. Outside are a series of gnarled tree roots cast in brass, painted and appended with motorcycle parts and cartoon-like clouds of scribble. These anthropomorphic sculptures with mesh plates or antennae-like wands populate the space like a cast of characters. Two modular columns extend respectively pink and blue arms from aluminium, claw-like bases that resemble oversized bunches of bananas. On the walls, a triptych of panels simulates large, palette-shaped windows covered in a thick layer of paint.
Installation view Guan Xiao: Teenager, The spent siesta, like a sun-dried memory, 2025; Raining, 2025;
Approaching Dust, 2025, Kunsthalle Wien 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Photo by Markus Wörgötter
Raining, 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Raining (detail), 2025
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy the artist and
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles/New York
Guan Xiao originally trained as a filmmaker before becoming known for creating sculpture that triggers an impulse for us to create our own narratives and tell stories about what we see. Earlier works resembled museological displays or photography studios that appeared to unite an eclectic selection of objects and images in one scheme. More recent sculpture refers to the Chinese custom of displaying polished tree roots in domestic settings. The practice of root carving dates back to the Warring States Period (474–221 BC), preserving the natural, given form of the wood. Its popularity over the centuries made it a symbol of economic wealth, while becoming a worn-out cultural cliché, denoting a lack of sophistication. In Guan Xiao’s work, the tree root becomes the basis of a singular, mythical creature in an ever-growing multitude of animal or human-like figures. Working with an array of elements – some meticulously hand-crafted, others mass produced – she references a broad range of cultural material that is defamiliarized and uncoupled from its associations to create an ambiguous, semi-fictional space and time.
Teenager returns to fundamental subjects such as food, clothing and shelter to address questions of progress and civilisation, tradition and spirituality that are central to the multi-faceted, playful and poetic work of Guan Xiao. The ‘conflicted state’ of the teenager is used as a metaphor for a society that the artist perceives to be suspended between ‘devotion and restraint’, needs and desires and ancient, philosophical, social and ethical values that are ‘in direct opposition’ to the economic system of capitalism:
China’s imperial history and Confucianism praise restraint suppress individuality. Yets imperial history and Confucianism praise restraint suppress individuality. Yets imperial history and Confucianism praise restraint suppress individuality. Yet subculture, independent cultures throughout history emphasise individuality […]. This contradiction is fundamentally between the philosophical systems of Asia and the economic system of capitalism – a conflict between two modes of thought […]. You might say captitalism is about 'construction', while Asian philosophy is about 'destruction.' – Guan Xiao
© Guan Xiao, Courtesy Guan Xiao Studio
Photo: Mathilde Agius and Art Basel
Artist Guan Xiao Biography
Guan Xiao (b. 1983, Chongqing, China) has held solo exhibitions at Bonner Kunstverein; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (both 2019); Kunsthalle Winterthur (2018); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2016); K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai and ICA, London (both 2016). Her work has also been exhibited at Start Museum, Shanghai (2024); Mudam Luxembourg (2023 and 2021); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2023); Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (both 2022); the 34th Bienial de São Paulo; the 58th Belgrade Biennale (both 2021); X Museum Triennial; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; Sharjah Art Foundation (all 2020); Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach; Honolulu Biennial; Migros Museum, Zurich (all 2019); the 57th Venice Biennale; Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin; M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (all 2017); 9th Berlin Biennale; ZKM, Karlsruhe (both 2016) and the 13th Biennale de Lyon (2015). Her public art commissions include works for Skulpturenpark Köln (2020); Anyang Public Art Project (2019) and High Line, New York (2017). Guan Xiao lives and works in Beijing.
Publication: Kunsthalle Wien will publish an exhibition catalogue that will also be the first monograph on Guan Xiao. Published in English and German it includes new essays by Chelsea Qianxi Liu, curator at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing and Sarah Johanna Theurer, curator at Haus der Kunst, Munich alongside an extensive interview between the artist and Michelle Cotton, Artistic Director Kunsthalle Wien.
KUNSTHALLE WIEN
Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna
