Chen Xi is a seminal figure in contemporary Chinese art and a leading voice of the “post-new generation” that emerged in the late 1990s. A 1991 graduate of the Fourth Studio in the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), she today serves as Professor in CAFA’s School of Architecture and as Doctoral Supervisor in the Foundation Department.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Chen Xi has continually expanded her practice beyond painting to embrace mixed media, sculpture, environmental installation, and printmaking. Her work explores the intersection of material and space—inviting viewers to question the boundaries between object and environment, tradition and innovation.

Chen’s pieces have featured in many of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions, including the special invitation show “The Road to History: Venice Biennale and Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art” at the 55th Venice Biennale, the Dakar African Contemporary Art Biennale, the Chinese Oil Painting Biennale, the Beijing International Fine Arts Biennale, and the Chengdu Biennale. She has also mounted numerous solo exhibitions both in China and abroad.

Her work is held in major public collections worldwide and is discussed in both Chinese and English editions of The History of Chinese Art in the 20th Century. Through her teaching, curatorial projects, and boundary-pushing installations, Chen Xi continues to shape the next chapter of Chinese contemporary art.