Miao Xiaochun

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Selected works by Miao Xiaochun

The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Below View
Miao Xiaochun
The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Below View

2006

C-Print

289 x 360 cm
Miao Xiaochun is renowned for his photographs of contemporary China, vast cityscapes which record technological development, painting an alien view of his homeland and envisioning a new dynastic era.

In his latest body of work, The Last Judgement in Cyberspace, Miao Xiaochun appropriates Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco as territory for similar provocation. Developed on computer, Miao has built a virtual model of the Apocalypse, architecturally structuring the tiers of Christian afterlife. Replacing each of the 400 figures in Michelangelo’s iconic work with his own image and placing them in corresponding pose and position to the original painting, Miao ‘photographs’ the scene from various vantages, ‘documenting’ the Second Coming from viewpoints both within and outside of the scene.

Printed in black and white. Miao’s photos conceive the celestial as a silvery futuristic tableau that’s enchantingly serene and threateningly industrial. In combining the sublime awe of religious painting with malevolent science fiction theme, Miao uses photography to engage the viewer in an ultra-modern way. In using digital process to create his subject ‘from scratch’, Miao’s photographs authenticate a virtual world rather than document reality. Similar to video game graphics and ‘screen shots’, Miao’s images involve the viewer by casting them as ‘avatars’ within the action. Presenting his scenes at obscure angles, Miao positions the viewer as seraphs, saints, or in the case of The Below View, the damned.
The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Rear View
Miao Xiaochun
The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Rear View

2006

C-Print

280 x 233 cm
The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Vertical View
Miao Xiaochun
The Last Judgement in Cyberspace -The Vertical View

2006

C-Print

120 x 354 cm

Miao Xiaochun's Biography

1964
 Born in Wuxi Jiangsu, China

Lives and works in Beijing, China


SOLO EXHIBITIONS



2008
 Miao Xiaochun: Microcosmos, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Berlin, Germany

2007
 Miao Xiaochun: H2O, White Space Beijing, Beijing, China
Miao Xiaochun: H2O, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Berlin, Germany

2006
 Image + Imagination, Osage contemporary art space, Hong Kong
A Birdview, Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgement In Cyberspace, White Space Beijing; Beijing, China
Miao Xiaochun: The last judgement in cyberspace, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgement In CyberspaceE; Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Berlin, Germany

2004
 Phantasmagoria, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA
A visitor from the past, Epson Photogallery Shanghai-Beijing, China

2002
 Linger, Gallery Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland

2001
 From East to West and Back to East, Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

1999
 Kulturbegegnungen, Gallery Stellwerk, Kassel, Germany

1994
 Beijing Art Museum; Shanghai Art Museum, China

1992
 National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing, China

1991
 Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, China

1988
 Gallery of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China


GROUP EXHIBITIONS



2006
 Synthetic Times – Media Art China 2008, NAMOC, Beijing, China
Himmlischer Frieden (1919-2008), Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Germany
Re-Imagining Asia. Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Berlin, Germany.
China Gold, Musée Maillol, Paris, France
55 Days in Valencia. Chinese Art Meeting, IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain
New World Order: Contemporary Installation Art and Photography from China, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
China Design Now, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

China: Facing Reality, MUMOK, Vienna, Austria
CHINA NOW, Works from the Essl Collection, cobra museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands
Floating – New Generation of Art in China, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
RED HOT – Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
Thermocline of Art – New Asian Waves, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany
Dragon´s Evolution, ChinaSquare New York, New York, USA
New Directions from China, [plug.in], Basel, Switzerland
The Constructed image: Photographic culture, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Toronto, Canada
La primavera del drago – Zoom on China, Palazzo Loggia, Wave Photogallery, Brescia, Italy
Passion For Art, Kunst der Gegenwart Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Zhù Yi! Chinese Contemporary Photography, Artium – Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Contemporary Artists from China, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Collective Identity, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, Great Britain
Beyond Foreordination, Art Seasons, Singapore, Singapore

2006
 Another world. Photography from China, Gallery Lukas Feichtner, Vienna, Austria

Beyond Foreordination, China Art Seasons, Beijing, China
CHINA NOW Kunst in Zeiten des Umbruchs, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Mahjong - Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
Field of Vision: Beijing, Beijing New Art Projects, Beijing, China

Susi: Opening up to China Art Today, Metropolitan Museum, Manila, Philippines
Ultra- Sense, Seoul International Photo Festival, Seoul, Korea

Entry Gate: Chinese Aesthetics of Heterogeneity, MOCA Shanghai, China

Beyond Experience: The New China, Arario Beijing, Beijing, China
FotoFreo, International Photography Festival, Australia
Transformations: New Chinese Photography, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Australia
Between Past and Future New Photography and Video from China, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Seduced and Abandoned, Zero field in 798, Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China
New Urban Reality: Chinese Contemporary Art, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Walking about in the Garden, Confucius Gallery, Beijing, China
Poetic Reality: A Reinterpretation of Jiangnan, RCM Art Museum, Nanjing, China

Totalstadt: Beijing case, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany

2005
 Asia: The Place To Be? Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Germany
Placed in China, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Guangzhou International Photo Biennale, Guangdong Art Museum, China
A Utopia of the Visible, Beijing New Art Projects, Beijing, China

Pingyao International Photography Festival 2005, Pingyao, China

Grounding Reality - Chinese Contemporary Art, Seoul Art Center, Seoul, Korea
The city in 360 degrees, Beijing new art projects, Dashanzi Art District, China
Mahjong - Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Chengdu Biennale 2005, China

Making a new relationship - The Art Ethics, Dimensions Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

Confluents II, international artists in Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Germany
Between Past and Future - New Photography and Video from China, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA; La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
City of Dreams, The Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK
Urban legend, 798 Art Space, Beijing, China

2004
 Performing The Body – Photography And Performance From China, Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Germany
Performance of the body, Contemporary Chinese Photography, Visual Gallery, Photokina, Cologne, Germany; Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin I Beijing, Berlin, Germany
Beyond Boundaries, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Pinyao in Paris, National Library Francois Mitterrand, MK2, Paris, France
Spellbound Aura – The New Vision of Chinese Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan
Rivka Rinn and Miao Xiaochun, White Space Beijing, Beijing, China
Le Printemps de Chine, Musée CRAC Alsace – Centre rhénan d´art contemporain, Altkirch, France
Sightseeing Beijing, SCA Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, Australia
Un-normal Perspective, 798 Art Space, Beijing, China
Between Past and Future – New Photography and Video from China, ICP and Asia Society,
New York, USA; The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA

2003
 Me and More, Museum of Art Lucerne, Switzerland
Left hand, right hand, A Sino German Exhibition of Contemporary Art, 798 Art Space, Beijing, China
Concept in situ, The Villa Museum, Beijing, China
Modernization & Urbanization – Asian Art Now, Marronnier Art Center, Seoul, Korea
Encounter, Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

2002
 Urban creation, Shanghai Biennial 2002, Shanghai Art Museum,
China
Media City Seoul 2002, 2nd Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul, Korea
China – Tradition and Modernity, Ludwig Gallery, Oberhausen, Germany
Chinese Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
Fantasia, East Modern Art Center, Beijing, China
Under Construction, New Dimensions of Asian Art, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan