Guanyu Xu
Map of the World, 2018
Estimated Value: $3,000

Archival pigment print
30 x 24 inches
Unframed
Edition 1/3 + 2 AP
Signed, verso
Donated by the artist, courtesy of Yancey Richardson Gallery and Gaotai Gallery.

In my long-term project, "One Land To Another," I present my personal journey in the United States in a half documentary/half fiction narrative to examine the intersectionality of race, sexuality, and citizenship. I interstice American landscapes with self-portraits in which I portray the act of intimacy with other gay men. These constellations of photographs not only express alternative ways of gay male intimacy, but also interweave with my transnational way of seeing. The presence of my Asian body disrupts the dominance of queer aesthetics which privilege a narrow, “white,” masculine homonormativity. My confrontation and exploration allow a diverse representation that usually is underrepresented.

I was born and raised in a conservative family in Beijing, China, where expressions of overt non-heteronormative behavior were forbidden. It was not until my arrival to the United States in 2014 that I finally had the courage to reveal my homosexuality. My exposure to American culture as a teenager through films and TV shows planted an American Dream in my mind. However, I came to realize that this perception was not entirely accurate. My study of American history has resulted in my knowledge of deep rooted anti-Chinese sentiments. Specifically, regarding sexuality, the dominance of white, macho gays has meant that I became an undesirable alien in this “land of freedom.”

To question ‘‘who has the power to represent’’ is at the core of my practice. The dominant modes of image making, for instance, commercial fashion photography, often simplified and reduced complex explorations of marginalized groups. Homonormativity is the adoption of heteronormativity, and is visualized in the art world through the consumption of Western canon. My staged portraits with men can be approximately categorized in four directions: the negotiation of power through the reenactment of stereotypes of gay Asians; the examination of the photographic looking in-between photographer, subject, and the viewer; the construction of fictional narratives; the performance towards camera/viewer to express micropolitics.

The departure from my motherland gives me a transnational perspective and a shifting viewpoint, which enables me to offer my queerness, displacement, and longing for utopia to destabilize the traditional norms in terms of race, sexuality, and ideology.

About the Artist:
Guanyu Xu

徐冠宇 Guanyu Xu (b.1993 Beijing) is an artist currently based in Chicago. He was the recipient of the Fred Endsley Memorial Fellowship (2015) and the James Weinstein Memorial Fellowship (2018). He is the winner of the PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award (2020), Lenscratch Student Prize (2019), the Foam Talent Award (2019), Lensculture Emerging Talent Award (2019), Kodak Film Photo Award (2019), and he is a Runner-up of the Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize (2019).

His works have been exhibited and screened internationally including the Aperture Foundation, New York; ICP Museum, New York; Athens Photo Festival, Greece; Format Photo Festival, UK; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Mint Museum, Charlotte; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His works have been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, W Magazine, Harper's Magazine, Musée Magazine, Der Greif, and China Photographic Publishing House.

Website: xuguanyu.com | yanceyrichardson.com | gaotai-gallery.com
Facebook: /Yancey-Richardson-Gallery
Instagram: @xuguanyu | @yanceyrichardsongallery | @gaotaigallery
Venmo: @Guanyu-Xu