About the Artist

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Xiao Lu (b.1962, Hangzhou, China) currently lives and works between Sydney and Beijing. She is a graduate of the Subsidiary School of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (China Academy of Art), Hangzhou. Best known for raising a gun and shooting at her work in the National Art Museum of China in 1989, thus precipitating the closing down of the show by the government, and her brief arrest, Xiao is considered one of China’s most influential and provocative female artists. Four months after Dialogue, the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred, her gunshots were dubbed “the first gunshots of Tiananmen”. Though Xiao operates across a range of media, her work is grounded in performance art. Xiao sees performance art as a way of releasing internal conflict and negative emotions such as anger and hatred.
 

Xiao Lu’s work has been included in important international exhibitions, including Tate, London; Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and 4A Center of Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Her work has been collected by public and private institutions, including the Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Taikang Insurance Group Art Collection, Beijing; and White Rabbit Collection, Sydney.