Born in Xi’an, 1967. After studying Fine Art at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts from 1982 – 1986, Xing went on to study a BFA at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing from 1988 – 1992. After this she studied a MFA in Photo and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts, New York.
Xing Danwen is one of the most active Chinese artist in today’s contemporary art scene, as well as one of few earliest artists using photography as an art form in the early 90s in China. Her artistic practice is both rich and varied, and her subjects are extensive, such as body, memories, sex, cultural status, globalization, consumption and desire – are all her concerns and personal interests. The issues of reality and fiction, fact and illusion often play an important role in her works. In the series Urban Fiction Xing addresses the globalization of urban landscapes. She uses both photographs shot on film and digitally manipulated to create a playful and fictitious world. In the new urban living spaces that she creates, inhabited by figures who inject a drop of life to the scenes.
