Xu Bing: Word Alchemy

‘Xu Bing: Word Alchemy’ assembles more than 50 of Xu Bing’s most important woodcut prints, videos, drawings, installations, and other ephemera representing almost 50 years of the artist’s creative output. Starting with Xu’s early engagements with social realism and Western art historical traditions alike, the exhibition charts the evolution of the artist’s linguistic experiments which challenge and expand not only the history of Chinese landscape painting, but the canons of contemporary art.

Born in China and now working in both Brooklyn and Beijing, artist Xu Bing (b. 1955) is widely considered to be one of the most important artists to emerge from China in the 20th century. Focusing on the artist’s longstanding engagement with words and language, ‘Word Alchemy’ is the most comprehensive exhibition on this theme so far, and around one-third of the objects in the exhibition are being shown in the U.S. for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include Xu Bing’s early works, his private never-before-seen notebook, landmark prints including the Series of Repetitions handscroll, a new Background Story with a connection to Zhao Mengfu’s famous ‘Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains’ handscroll, a new Texas-themed ‘Square Word Calligraphy,’ and a new installation of ‘Monkeys Grasp for the Moon’ in Asia Society Texas’ Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Asia Society Texas will publish a full-color exhibition catalogue and host a symposium on Xu Bing’s art on February 23, 2024.