How does language define culture? What does it mean to strip meaning from language?

The art of Xu Bing raises these stirring questions. Globally known for his contemporary and dynamic style, the renowned Chinese artist will make a special appearance at the Asian Art Museum to talk about influences on his art, specifically his works since 2008. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session.

Xu Bing often explores language and meaning, and how they can be easily manipulated. For his Book of the Sky, 1988, a monumental installation using traditional Chinese printing and bookmaking methods, the artist invented a lexicon of characters, which he hand-carved into typesetting blocks and printed on books, panels, and scrolls. The characters appear authentic but are totally meaningless.

Xu Bing was born in Chongqing, China, near the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976); during his childhood he was sent to the countryside to perform farm labor. In 1981 he completed his bachelor's degree in the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, where he then stayed on as an instructor and earned his master's in 1987. After more than twenty years living in the U.S., Xu Bing returned to China in 2008 to assume his current position, vice president of CAFA. He has had solo exhibitions at the Freer-Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona; and elsewhere. His work appears in high-school and college textbooks around the world. In 2006 Princeton University Press published Persistence/Transformation: Text as Image in the Art of Xu Bing, a multidisciplinary study of Xu Bing's landmark artwork Book from the Sky.

Xu Bing received a Macarthur "Genius Award" in 1999 for his originality, creativity, and capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in printmaking and calligraphy. In 2003 he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, and in 2004 the Artes Mundi, the first Wales International Visual Art Prize. In 2007 the Southern Graphics Council awarded Xu Bing its lifetime achievement award, recognizing that his "use of text, language and books has impacted the dialogue of the print and art worlds in significant ways." In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Columbia University.

Xu Bing maintains studios in Beijing and in Brooklyn, New York.

Presented by the Asian Art Museum; the Asia Society of Northern California; and the Asian Contemporary Art Consortium, San Francisco.