Paris Photo 2023
November 9 – 12, 2023
Facing North, Looking West, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Parents' Bedroom, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Rooms of Convergence, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Inside of My Drawer, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Space of Mutation, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
The Dining Room, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
The Living Room, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
My Desktop, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Worlds Within Worlds, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Behind My Door, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Freedoms Are On The Margin, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Opened Closets, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Windows of the Worlds, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Space of Ruptures, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
Reanimated Bedroom, 2019. Archival pigment print. From the series Temporarily Censored Home.
A Good Asian Boy, 2015. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
A Snow Day, 2014. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Alpha Male, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Arrival, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Bon Voyage, 2014. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Death in a Bathtub, 2014. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Display Window, 2015. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Fence, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Holding, 2015. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Lighting Up, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Sea (Lake Michigan), 2014. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Statues, 2015. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Supporting Character, 2016. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
The Ideal Body, 2016. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
The Map of the World, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Two Locations, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Removal, 2018. Archival pigment print. From the series From One Land to Another.
Guanyu Xu's photographic interventions offer an exploration of his complex personal history and identity; born and raised in China, Xu moved to the US in 2014. His work bridges the gap between the personal and political, highlighting the disparities and connections between the two nations, in which his intersectional experience of the US meets his conservative familial experience of China.
In his recent series, Temporarily Censored Home (2018-2019), Xu covertly created intricately layered photographic installations in his parents’ home in Beijing, queering the normativity of this heterosexual space. By inserting a vast array of both made and collected photographs, including images from family albums, adverts and editorials he collected as a teen, and portraits of himself and other gay men, Xu reclaims his home as a queer space of freedom and rebellion. In some rooms, photographs of varying sizes cover every visible inch, while in others oversized prints are draped over pieces of furniture or hanging from the ceiling. Doorways and windows are replaced with photographs to create dizzying perspectives in which the viewer is led to wonder what is real and what is not. These juxtapositions collapse space and time, pointing to the relationship between individual freedom and global political governance while aiming to dissolve the borders of opposition.
徐冠宇 Guanyu Xu (b.1993, Beijing) is an artist currently based in Chicago and a lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Influenced by the production of ideology in American visual culture and a conservative familial upbringing in China, Xu’s practice extends from examining the production of power in photography to the question of
personal freedom and its relationship to political regimes. He negotiates this from the perspective as a Chinese gay man. In his work, Xu migrates between mediums like photography, new media, and installation. These movements operate similarly to his displaced and fractured identity.
He is the recipient of the Chicago DCASE Artist Grant (2022), CENTER Development Grant (2021), Hyéres International Festival Prize (2020), PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award (2020), Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition (2019), Lensculture Emerging Talent Award (2019), and Kodak Film Photo Award (2019). He has received artist residencies including ACRE (Chicago, IL), Light Work (Syracuse, NY), and Latitude (Chicago, IL). His works have been exhibited and screened internationally including the Aperture Foundation, New York; International Center of Photography, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Orlean Museum of Art, New Orleans; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Wesleyan University, Middletown; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Mint Museum, Charlotte; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, and New Orleans Museum of Art. His works have been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, W Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Dazed, and China Photographic Publishing House.
A Trillion Sunsets: A Century of Image Overload
January 28 - May 2, 2022
Are there too many images in the world? Too many of the wrong kind? Too many that we don’t like or want or need? These feel like very contemporary questions, but they have a rich and fascinating history. A Trillion Sunsets: A Century of Image Overload takes a long look at our worries and compulsive fascination with the proliferation of photographic images.
The Long Dream
November 7, 2020 - January 17, 2021
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a renewed reckoning over racial justice and inequality, The Long Dream invites visitors to see the city of Chicago, the world, and themselves, through the eyes of more than 70 local artists whose work offers us ways to imagine a more equitable and interconnected world.
35th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories - Hyères
October 19, 2020
Guanyu Xu's work Temporarily Censored Home is chosen as the grand prize winner for the 35th International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories - Hyères. The jury, presided over by Paolo Roversi, chose Xu's work from amongst ten finalists, drawn from a pool of 700 submissions and 50 nationalities.
