Born in 1968 in Sichuan Province, China, Xiao Kegang graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Southwestern Normal University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. Through relentless experimentation with materiality and expressions, he seeks a balanced, self-contained state in his artworks — a poetic perception of the world and nature. His creative process disregards any intentional design, removes focal subjects, and disintegrates recognizable visual elements in the picture plane, with brushstrokes and textures serving as a journal that records every interaction between the mind and the canvas on a spiritual journey. Traces of medieval murals and traditional Chinese Shanshui influences are visible in his oeuvre, along with other demonstrations of “cognitive alternatives”.
Xiao Kegang’s solo exhibitions include Just follow your heart, HDL Museum, Chengdu, China (2022); Anonymous, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China (2019); Darkness in the Light, Surplus Space, Wuhan, China (2017); and The Peach Garden of Travelling: Untimely Painting, The Art Museum of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China (2011).
His work has also been featured in multitudinous group exhibitions, including Art Gallery’s Eyes—Season Four, Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China (2022); Portraits in Contemporary Art from Sichuan and Chongqing, SEN-MUSEUM, Chengdu, China (2022); Tangle of Revolution and Political Soul, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai (2021); Compounded Performance, Up Art Space, Guiyang, China (2021); Force Majeure, Eli Klein Gallery, New York (2020); Extreme Mix - Guangzhou Airport Biennale 2019, Guangzhou Airport Resort, Guangzhou, China (2019); NANKAN: Inexplicit Ethics and De-ranking Perspective, Surplus Space, Wuhan, China (2016); The Spectres in the Double Shadow, Alioth Art Center, Shanghai (2015); Genealogy of Techniques: Form, Conception and Cognition —Painting Practices of He Duoling and Xiao Kegang, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2014); He Gong and My Friends, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China (2014); Annals of Probings on Painting, K. Gallery, Chengdu, China (2012); Four Years Blue House Saving Lives With Art, K. Gallery, Chengdu, China (2008); Labor and Poetry - Art Exhibition, Fei Gallery, Guangzhou, China (2007); Still Sensations: Xiao Kegang & Luo Yinglong, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu, China (2007); New Power Chinese Contemporary Art Biennale, Yuangong Art Museum, Shanghai (2006); and New Power Beijing Exhibition, TS1 Gallery, Beijing (2006).
Xiao Kegang lives and works in Chengdu, China.