Xie Lei: Au-delà

A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Xie Lei lives and works in Paris since 2006. Painting is the medium he uses to explore its characteristics through a language that fuses the figurative and the abstract. Starting with representations of reality, his practice explores uncertain, ambiguous worlds which his imagination transforms and shapes.

For Open Space, Xie Lei presents Au-delà: a set of five new monumental paintings juxtaposed in a panoramic configuration. Evanescent and almost phosphorescent figures emerge the branches and the foliage, one painting to the next; figures whose contours are diluted in a palette of green and blue, appearing and disappearing. Xie Lei questions our perception through this phantasmagorical landscape by evoking the possibility of other worlds. A mirror with blurry reflections accentuates the immersive experience in this whimsical world, while making it ambivalent.  

Curators: Claudia Buizza and Ludovic Delalande (Fondation Louis Vuitton)

Xie Lei (1983, China) lives and works in Paris since 2006. His works have been exhibited in numerous institutions: MO.CO., Montpellier (FR); CAPC, Bordeaux (FR); Villa Noailles, Hyères (FR); Collection Lambert, Avignon (FR); MAC VAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (FR); Langen Foundation, Neuss (DE); Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, Paris (FR); Fondation Yishu 8, Beijing (CH); Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (FR). His works are represented in such public and private collections as Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, MAC VAL, Fondation Colas, Burger Collection and X Museum. He has also been a resident at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid and at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels. In January 2024, he will be in residence at the Villa Medici in Rome.

In Paris, Xie Lei is represented by the Galerie Semiose.

Open Space programme
Open Space is a program dedicated to contemporary creation in its most current expression. National and international artists are invited several times a year to imagine a specific project for one of the galleries of the Frank Gehry building. A solid support for emerging contemporary creation, Open Space offers the opportunity for a first solo exhibition in an internationally renowned institution and also accompanies the production of a new work.

April 11–July 1, 2018
Open Space #1 Jean-Marie Appriou (1986, France)

July 6–September 23, 2018
Open Space #2 Matt Copson (1992, Great Britain)

October 3, 2018—January 6, 2019
Open Space #3 Anna Hulacova (1984, Czech Republic)

January 12–April 22, 2019
Open Space #4 Hoël Duret (1988, France)

May 4–September 2, 2019
Open Space #5 Lauren Halsey (1987, United States)

October 5, 2019–January 27, 2020
Open Space #6 Meriem Bennani (1988, Morocco)

September 23, 2020–January 3, 2021
Open Space #7 Jean Claracq (1991, France)

September 22, 2021–January 24, 2022
Open Space #8 Bianca Bondi (1986, South Africa)

October 1, 2021–January 24, 2022
Open Space #9 Özgür Kar (1992, Turkey)

October 7, 2022–February 27, 2023
Open Space #10 Lydia Ourahmane (1992, Algeria)

April 5–August 28, 2023
Open Space #11 Ndaye Kouagou (1992, France)

October 18, 2023–February 19, 2024
Open Space #12 Alex Ayed (1989, France)