CHEN DUXI 陈督兮
Born in Chengdu, China in 1983
Lives and works in Beijing, China
Chen Duxi graduated from the Fine Arts College of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, currently based in Beijing. Chen maintains an observer’s perspective when engaging with social life. To sustain his acute sensitivity, he frequently immerses himself in nature through hiking and cycling, examining plants, stones, and insects with a near-microscopic gaze. His exploration of painting’s primal language involves studying the evolutionary logic of Chinese painting across dynasties, cross-referencing its uniqueness through diverse civilizational lenses. Tracing the river of human cultural development—from ancient artifacts, carvings, and pictographs to prehistoric fossil specimens—he finds that the more archaic an object, the more unadorned and closer to truth it becomes, offering transcendent spiritual resonance. Thus, Chen’s work emphasizes linear expression, seeking to unveil the mystical forces behind painterly impulses, convinced that image-making can reveal infinite paths beyond cognitive limits. Series like Contemplate and The Order of Body merge geological precision with literati brushwork, embodying the Daoist principle of “mutual generation of vital energies”.
Duxi's solo exhibitions include: Rumbling Valley, O2ART, Beijing, CN (2024); The Order of Body, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA (2023); Hydrology, Anyone×Tea Here 798, Beijing, CN (2022); Emerging From The Twilight, Salon Ten in WF Central, Beijing, CN (2021); Chen Duxi, Art 8, Paris, FR (2019); Wild State, 55 Gallery, Shanghai, CN (2019); Voice of the Spring, Nouvel Institut Franco Chinois, Lyon, FR (2017); Two Sides of a Coin, 55 Gallery, Shanghai, CN (2016); End of the Fall, Art 8, University of Lyon Site, Beijing, CN (2015).
His major group exhibitions include: Towards the River Mouth: Embracing the Unfettered Flow of All, Gallery Where, Beijing, CN (2023); Midsummer Eve, O2ART, Beijing, CN (2023); Bon's Baisers de Pekin, Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Paris, FR (2022); The Rain Freshens, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA (2022); "Flying to the Sky and Falling to the Ground" OCAT Biennial Exhibition, Shenzhen, CN (2021); Purity of Mind, Fu Qiumeng Fine Art, New York, USA (2018); Buddha's Country Landscape II: Still Water and Deep Flow, Shanghai Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, CN (2018); Jingting Mountain, Tong Gallery + Projects, Beijing, CN (2017); New Stele Studies 3: Gongyang Tradition and Realistic Representation, Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, CN (2017); Thinking about Not Thinking, Art 8, University of Lyon Site, Beijing, CN (2016); Today Sighing for Tea, Today Art Museum, Beijing, CN (2015); Seeing the Unseen, Hezi Art Space, Shenzhen, CN (2015); Confronting Anitya: Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, CN (2014); Confronting Anitya: Oriental Experience in Contemporary Art, Bonn Contemporary Art Center, Bonn, Germany (2014); Memorandum, White Space, Beijing, CN (2013); The Time Kept, Fringe Club, Hong Kong, CN (2010).
EXHIBITIONS
POLLINATORS AND PRIMORDIAL SOUP
Chen Menghan, Chen Duxi, Ge Tairan & Tenzin Dhame, Hugo Teixeira, Shang Ying, Wu Yumo
15 JUNE - 27 JULY 2025
GALLERY WHERE (Courtyard Space), BEIJING
TOWARDS THE RIVER MOUTH: EMBRACING THE UNFETTERED FLOW OF ALL
Chen Duxi, Sun Wenjia, Tang Nannan, Nobuyuki Tanaka
12 AUGUST - 6 OCTOBER 2023
GALLERY WHERE (Courtyard Space), BEIJING