Xi Niu: In Search of New Routes

A special project conceived and produced directly within the Rhinoceros Gallery, this group exhibition curated by Claire Shiying Li reinterprets the Silk Road as a space in constant transformation, shaped by exchanges, relationships and processes of identity formation.

The exhibition brings together seven artists from different generations and with distinct practices: Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Hao Liang, Han Mengyun, Xie Fan, Xie Nanxing, Zhao Gang and Zhou Yilun. Using different media – painting, sculptural installation, film, material research and transdisciplinary collaboration – the artists develop hybrid visual languages informed by centuries of material, cultural and social cross-fertilisation between East and West.

The title Xi Niu (Chinese for “rhinoceros”) serves as the exhibition’s imaginary totem, embodying travel, resilience and openness to encounter. The artworks and artistic practices presented to the public offer a reading of contemporary China beyond fixed identities and singular narratives, presenting culture the result of multiple trajectories, unexpected encounters and forms of knowledge capable of crossing geographical and temporal boundaries.