All that is Solid Melts into Air
Artist: Suyi Xu
September 24–December 18, 2022
Suyi Xu, Fidelio, 2021. Oil on canvas, 64 x 48 inches ©Suyi Xu, Photograph by Xi Zhou, courtesy of Fou Gallery
Curator: Echo He
New York - Fou Gallery is pleased to announce New York-based artist Suyi Xu’s first solo exhibition All that is Solid Melts into Air, from September 24th to December 18th, 2022. Xu’s first exhibition with Fou Gallery features thirteen paintings from 2020 to 2022 that depict interiors and figures with historical references and idiosyncratic symbolic elements, as a direct response to the spiritual crisis of contemporary existence.
Xu Suyi brought us into a mystical world and gently closed the door behind. The artist's work is thus complete, and the rest can only be assimilated through the viewer’s experience and imagination. Brushed with layers of oil paints to allow forms to build up over time, her paintings engage viewers across time and space. Only with slow and contemplative gaze that one can observe how the artist swims merrily amongst abstract shapes and colors. Eventually, one can finally identify the rays of light that are contoured by the dust motes dancing within. Eros and Thanatos walk by each other—their encounter prescribed in light and dust in a space beyond time.
News and Reviews
“Suyi Xu: All that is Solid Melts into Air, Recensione.” Cinaoggi, 2023.1.1 >>
“Suyi Xu: All that is Solid Melts into Air Review.” China Underground, 2023.1.1 >>
“Xu Suyi All that is Solid Melts into Air.” Tussle, 2022. 11 >>
“Suyi Xu: All that is Solid Melts into Air.” Asia Art Archive in America, 2022.9 >>
Catalogue
Artist
Suyi Xu (b. 1996, Shanghai, China) is a painter who currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, Xu earned her B.F.A. in Art History and Visual Arts from Barnard College (New York) and her M.F.A. in the Fine Arts Department of School of Visual Arts (New York) in 2022. Xu’s paintings are meditations on space, interiors, and architecture that morphs into meditations on color fields. Xu has participated in several exhibitions in commercial galleries and non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Europe, including group shows at New Collectors Gallery (London, 2021), Boomer Gallery (London, 2021) and A.I.R. Gallery (New York, 2021). All that is Solid Melts into Air (Fou Gallery, New York, 2022) is her first solo exhibition in New York.
Curator
Echo He (b. 1986, Chengdu, China) is a curator, gallerist, millinery artist and writer in New York. She is Research Services Director at Pace Gallery. In 2013, she founded and has continued to operate Fou Gallery, a unique gallery space and creative lab located in New York. Fou Gallery is considered as a notable and viable model for alternative exhibition spaces, and an ecology that thrives outside of mainstream gallery culture, and has received significant attention globally. Echo received New York State Assembly Certificate of Merit (New York, 2020), Yishu Awards for Writing and Curating Contemporary Chinese Art (Shanghai, 2016) and special Congressional Recognition (New York, 2018) . She is a prolific writer and regularly contributes to a variety of publications, including The Art Newspaper (China), Lens, Art China, Marie Claire, Wallpaper*, World Heritage Geography, Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Condé Nast Traveler, among others. He received her B.A. and M.A. degree in Business Administration from Peking University and an M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.
