Miao Xiaochun was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China in 1964. He graduated from CAFA, Beijing, China in 1989 and from Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany in 1999. In the 1990s, Xiaochun began his experimenting with the relationships between art and advancing technology, but it was not until 2005 that Xiaochun began creating his large-scale digitized works.
As the one of the foremost representatives of Chinese new media art, his extensive body of works parallel each other through the theme of technology as a representation of the present, and classical artwork as the past. His use of contemporary photography is based on the “multiple viewpoints” perspective to pioneer connections between history and the modern world. He successfully uses 3D technology to create upon a 2D image a virtual 3D scene, to transform a still canvas into moving images, concurrently changing the traditional way of viewing paintings and giving a completely new interpretation and significance to a masterpiece of art, especially with the striking use of his idiosyncratic imagination about history and the future. His works add an important example to contemporary negotiations with art history.
Miao Xiaochun’s recent solo exhibitions include: Miao Xiaochun: Gyro Dance, Eli Klein Gallery, New York (2019); 01 Variable Cycle: Miao Xiaochun 2006-2018, OCT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, China (2019); Echo, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris (2016); Metamorphosis, Klein Sun Gallery, New York (2016); Miao Xiaochun: Save As, White Box Art Center, Beijing (2015); Miao Xiaochun 2015, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China (2015).
Miao Xiaochun’s work has been featured in institutional group exhibitions across the world. Recent shows include: The Curation Workshop II - Story And Structure, Hua Art Museum, Shenzhen, China (2020); The Big Picture - Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, Massachusetts (2020); Futurology of Art, Guangming Cultural Art Center Museum, Shenzhen, China (2020); When Speed Become Form - Live In Your Screen, Wind H Art Center, Beijing (2020); The Dream of Being An Artist, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France (2019); Beyond the Landscape - Chinese Contemporary Conceptual Photography Exhibition, Epoch Art Museum, Wenzhou, China (2019); Anren Biennale - A confrontation of Ideals, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Anren, Chengdu, China (2019); Traces, Nolan Park, Governors Island, New York (2019); New Art History 2000 - 2018 Chinese Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, Yinchuan, China (2019); Life and Dreams: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Media Art, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany (2018); Ambush on All Sides An Alternative Intervention in Social Vision, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Sichuan, China (2018); Open Source Shenzhen Biennale 2018, Luohu Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China (2018); Screen Refreshing/Labor AMNUA Photography Exhibition 2018, Art Museum of Nanjing Museum of Art, Nanjing, China (2018); Hybridizations: the Ghost of Painting, Whitebox Art Center, Beijing (2018); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China (2018); VOICE OF ASIA, Arario Gallery West Bund, Shanghai (2017); Image of the Mind: Contemporary Chinese Art, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York (2017); Heaven Beyond the Sea, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sanya, China (2017); Film Fra Kina, Western Norway University of applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway (2017); Mutual Supplementary and Wedge, Shanghai Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai; Luther und Avant-Garde, Wittenberg Old Prison, Wittenberg, Germany (2017); Chine, art en Mouvement, Musee du Film d’Aminmation, Château d’Annecy, Annecy, France (2017); Beyond the Sea: International Contemporary Art Exhibition, E Contemporary Art Museum, Shenzhen, China (2017); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography (1976 - 2017), Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing(2017); B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt, Germany (2017).
Miao Xiaochun’s work is included in important private and museum collections worldwide. He currently lives in Beijing and works at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the Department of Photography and Digital Media.