Qiu Xiaofei was born in 1977 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. He studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1998. He lives and works in Beijing.
Qiu’s practice includes oil painting, watercolour, drawing, sculpture and installation. Many of his paintings are based on photos from his childhood, and that source feeds into one of his key themes, which is the relationship between personal experience and history.
Qiu’s solo exhibitions include Point of No Return, Boers-Li gallery, Beijing (2010); Invisible Journeys, Doosan Gallery, Seoul (2009); pagoda of the discarded at the Art & Public Gallery, Geneva (2008). He has participated in group exhibitions including Discipline with Master’s Dignity – Teaching & Research, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2018); ON | OFF: My Generation: Young Chinese Artists, exhibited jointly by the Tampa Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (2014);
Artists in Concept & Practice, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Face, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2012); MengLong – Oscurita, Collateral Events of the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Emporium – A New Common Sense of Space, The Science and Technology Museum of Leonardo da Vinci, Milan (2009); 10th Havana Biennial (2009); New World Order, Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands (2008); The Real Thing, Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, UK (2007); Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany (2007); Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern (2005).