Xu Zhen®
XU ZHEN®’s provocative aesthetics relies on both conceptual and pop strategies. He first undertook behavioral and cultural experiments as an autonomous artist via controversial performances and videos. Ironically mirroring post-Mao China’s journey into consumerism, he has since transformed himself into a brand with the creation in 2009 of his art corporation MadeIn Company. The works “produced by MadeIn Company” in his name mainly consist of sculptures, paintings and installations. They represent, often monumentally, incongruous clashes between iconographies pertaining to distant cultures, civilizations, and ages. From the improbable encounter between Japanese bondage and voodoo fetishes, to Buddha statues forcing themselves into duplicates of Greco-Roman gods, the collision between cultural symbols allows him to subtly touch upon the various power struggles of human history. Embodying the truly violent nature of cultural hybridization, XU ZHEN®’s composite art further questions the loss of meaning and context induced by the precipitation of globalization in the digital era.
Founded by artist Xu Zhen in 2013, XU ZHEN® is the flagship art brand of MadeIn Company, a contemporary art creation corporate devoted to cutting-edge creative production and research on contemporary culture’s infinite possibilities. XU ZHEN® is one such initiative to offer spiritual aspirations and life experiences of the finest quality through the appreciation and collection of artworks and events produced by the brand.