Word Alchemy: Talk and Book Launch with Xu Bing

Join us at China Institute on Tuesday, June 10 from 6:30–8:00 PM for a special book launch and talk with internationally acclaimed artist Xu Bing. This event celebrates the release of the full-color exhibition catalogue for Word Alchemy, Xu Bing’s 2024 exhibition at Asia Society Texas (co-curated by Susan L. Beningson and Owen Duffy) that surveyed his use of words and language across his decades-long career. The catalogue, edited by the exhibition’s curators, features a new essay by Xu Bing, as well as 9 additional texts by leading scholars and curators. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Xu Bing discuss his groundbreaking, decades-long exploration of language, art, and meaning—one of the most influential artistic practices of the contemporary era. Xu Bing will be featured in Metamorphosis: Chinese Memory and Displacement, China Institute Gallery’s fall exhibition (curated by Susan L. Beningson).

Xu Bing (b. 1955, Chongqing, China) is one of the most important contemporary artists to emerge from China. Best known for his innovative use of language and printmaking, his work explores how meaning is constructed across cultures. Xu studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, where he later served as Vice President and now chairs the Academic Committee. He moved to the U.S. in 1990 as an honorary artist and currently lives and works between Beijing and New York.

His work has been exhibited at leading institutions including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the British Museum, and the Venice Biennale. His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize, the Artes Mundi Prize, and the U.S. State Department Medal of Arts. Xu’s art is featured in major textbooks and continues to influence global conversations around language, identity, and cross-cultural exchange.

Susan L. Beningson is an independent curator based in New York City. Her most recent exhibitions include Xu Bing: Word Alchemy (with Owen Duffy) and Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions (2023) at Asia Society Texas; We The People: Xu Bing and Sun Xun Respond to the Declaration of Independence (Asia Society NY Triennial 2020-2021), and Imperial Treasures: Chinese Ceramics of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, currently on view at the Asia Society Museum NY. From 2013 through 2019 she served as a curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Previously, she taught Asian art history at NYU, CUNY, and Columbia University and worked at the Princeton University Art Museum. She is currently Chair of the Asian Art Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Art Museums. Dr. Beningson received her doctoral degree in Chinese art and archaeology from Columbia University and an MBA from New York University.

Owen Duffy (b. 1989) is the Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Asia Society Texas. Recent curatorial projects include Xu Bing: Word Alchemy (co-curated with Susan L. Beningson); the Asia Society Texas presentation of Tsherin Sherpa: Spirits; and Vian Sora: Outerworlds (co-organized by AST, the Speed Art Museum, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art). From 2019-2022, he was the Director of the Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University in Queens, organizing a series of exhibitions around the theme of diplomacy in the university’s historic Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. He earned his PhD in art history from Virginia Commonwealth University and is an alumnus of Asia Art Archive in America’s Leadership Camp. His writing has been published with ArtReview, Momus, e-flux education, Frieze, and Artforum.

Copies of Word Alchemy can be purchased and signed by Xu Bing on site. Limited edition, secure a copy in advance!

This event is free and open to the public. With inquiries, please contact Tracy Jiao at tjiao@chinainstitute.org.