Gallery Exhibition
Sun Xun Atlas Obscura
MANGROVEGALLERY
2021.09.08 - 2021.10.30
Biography
Sun Xun was born in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, in 1980. He graduated from the Printmaking Department of the China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. He founded π Animation Studio in Hangzhou and later relocated the studio to Beijing, where he currently lives and works.
Sun Xun’s practice centers on hand-drawn animation, through which he has developed a distinctive visual language characterized by richly metaphorical imagery, a dark and intense hand-drawn aesthetic, and dreamlike, nonlinear narratives. In recent years, taking new media art as a point of departure, he has expanded his practice across a broader range of visual media. Working with newspapers, books, woodcut prints, ink, pastel, and other media, he explores their distinct narrative possibilities and investigates nonlinear conceptions of time and space. Drawing on his understanding of society and sociological theory, his work explores the relationship between reality and imagination.
In 2010, Sun Xun received the CCAA Best Young Artist Award and the Taiwan Contemporary Art Link Young Art Award, and was awarded a 2011/2012 Visual Arts Fellowship by the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. His animated short film 21 KE was selected for the Orizzonti section of the 67th Venice International Film Festival, making it the first Chinese animated film to be selected for the festival. In 2012, his woodcut animation Some Actions Which Haven’t Been Defined Yet in the Revolution (2011) was selected for the Berlinale Shorts Competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. In 2026, his animated feature Magic Atlas (2026) was selected for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. Sun Xun’s works have also been screened at international film festivals including the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and the Holland Animation Film Festival.
Sun Xun’s work is held in numerous public and institutional collections, including the White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, Asia Society, the Vancouver Art Gallery, M+, the Singapore Art Museum, and the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.
2009
π Animation Studio Moved to Beijing, and now Sun Xun works and lives there
2006
Established π Animation Studio in Hangzhou
1980
Born in Fuxin, Liaoning Province
Solo Exhibitions (Selected)
2026 Ten Years of Film, MANGROVEGALLERY, Shenzhen, China
Magic Atlas, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing, China
2025 Magic Atlas, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
2024 Heroes and Magicians, ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, Seoul, Korea
Parallel Circus, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2023 Tears of Chiwen, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, USA
2022 An Infinite Journey, ShanghART, Shanghai, China
2021 Atlas Obscura, Mangrove Gallery, Shenzhen, China
Mythological Time, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Time Spy, Center of Creation Contemporary of Andalusia, Cordoba, Spain
Frontier (Part II), SUN Xun Solo Exhibition, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai, China
Time Spy, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida, USA
2018 Frontier, SUN Xun-Phase I, Shanghai Museum of Glass, Shanghai, China
SUN XUN, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Time Spy, Saint Louis Art Museum, USA
2017 Time Spy, Sean Kelly, New York, USA Tears of Chiwen, Arario Gallery, Seoul, Korea 2016 Reconstruction of the Universe, 2016 Audemars Piguet Art Commission, Art Basel in Miami Beach, USA Prediction Laboratory, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China “The Secondary Republic” 62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen-Artist Exhibition, Verein für aktuelle Kunst, Oberhausen, Germany 2015 Unfounded Predictions, ShanghART Singapore, Singapore Stately Shadows, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, UK 2014 The Time Vivarium, Sean Kelly, New York, USA PALIMPSESTES-SUN Xun Solo Exhibition, ShanghART Singapore, Singapore Brave New World, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, China Yesterday Is Tomorrow, Hayward Gallery, London, UK 2013 Magician Party and Dead Crow, SUN Xun Residency Project, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing, China 2012 Last Night, Platform China (Hong Kong), Hong Kong, China The Parallel World, A4 Contemporary Arts Center, Chengdu, China Undefined Revolution, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland A Footnote to Time, Wall/ladder/machine, New York, USA 2011 Sun Xun·A Candid Dialogue, LOUIS VUITTON Taipei Maison, Taipei, China Clown’s Revolution, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China Beyond-ism-Sun Xun Solo Exhibition, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing, China 2010 Clown’s Revolution, Holland Animation Festival, Center Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands 21KE, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China The Soul of Time, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland Beyond-ism, Yokohama Creativecity Center, Yokohama, Japan 2009 Sun Xun Solo Exhibition, ZIAM Gallery, Yokohama, Japan The Dark Magician of New Chinese Animation, Pacific Film Archive Theater, University of California, Berkeley, USA The Dark Magician of New Chinese Animation, REDCAT CalArts, Los Angeles, USA His Story-Sun Xun Solo Exhibition, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China Shock of Time, The Drawing Center, New York, USA 2008 Coal Spell, Platform China project space, Beijing, China New China, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA 2007 Mythos-SUN Xun Solo Exhibition, ShanghART F-Space, Shanghai, China
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2026 Black Myth, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
The Field-ShanghART30, Shanghai Jiushi International Equestrian Centre, Shanghai, China
2025 DRAW: Heat, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, USA
Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA
The Stranger, MANGROVEGALLERY, Shenzhen, China
WASTE LAND, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, USA
Recovering Time-The 2nd Annual Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography and
Video Arts, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
2024 目 Chine | A new generation of artists, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Everyday Practices, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
The Third Bank of the River, Song Art Museum, Beijing, China
Visaraloka, Expanded Media Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia
2023 Tree of Fire, MANGROVEGALLERY, Shenzhen, China
Imprinting in Time, Chinese Printmaking at the Beginning of a New Era, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Follow the Rabbit, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus, Austria
Days after Days after Days, ShanghART Singapore, Singapore
2022 Shuo Shu, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Hawai’i Triennial 2022, Royal Hawaiian Center, USA
2021 M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China
Ink City, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, China
2020Asia Society Triennial, We Do Not Dream Alone, Asia Society Museum, New York, USA
The New Classic of Mountains and Seas:Contemporary Art on Chinese Original Myths and Legends, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
Out of The Blue, Calligraphic Journey Through ALCANTARA, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
2019 Arts of Asia, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA Artificial Intelligence Art Exhibition, King Fahd Cultural Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Artificial Intelligence and the Dialogue of Cultures, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia A Fairy Tale in Red Times, Works from the White Rabbit Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia 2018 Smiles Without Freedom, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, USA Clouds Stretching for A Thousand Miles, Ink in Asian Art, Asia Society, New York, USA Chinese Contemporary Selected Videos, Cinema Dynamo, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, Switzerland 2017 Rosa’s Wound, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Taipei, China 2016 The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at the Guggenheim, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA 2015 2015 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, China 2014 Unscrolled, Reframing Chinese Contemporary Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada 15 Years Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China 2013 INK ART: Past as Present in Contemporary China, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA Documentar Fortnight 2013: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, New York, USA ON|OFF, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China 2012
Collections (Selected)
Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
M+ Collection, Hong Kong, China
Asia Society, New York, USA
Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Dr. Michael I. Jacobs Collection, USA
Arario Museum, Seoul, Korea
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, USA
The Franks-Suss Collection, London, UK
White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Sydney, Australia
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France; San Francisco, USA
Hammer Museum, Gift of the Haudenschild Collection, Los Angeles, USA
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
DSL Collection, Paris, France
CBW Collection, Taiwan, China
Deutsche Bank Collection, Germany
TANK SHANGHAI, Shanghai, China
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Awards (Selected)
2018Asia Arts Game Changer Awards, Delhi, India
2017Art of Dining 2017 honoree Sun Xun, Orange County Art Museum, California, United States
2014The 8th AAC Art China · Young Artist Awards
2010Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA Best Young Artist)
Taiwan Contemporary Art Link (Young Art Award）
Artist in Residence at Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands
The Civitella Ranieri Visual Arts Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbria, Italy
Exhibitions
