Based in Guangzhou, b. 1994

Shaoya Xie was born in Leizhou, China, and graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2017. His practice centers on figurative painting, exploring the tensions between bodily experience, psychological states, and the broader social environment.

Xie’s paintings are distinguished by sharp, incisive lines that cut across the canvas and expand into fragmented, overlapping scenes. Set against sparse and often void-like backgrounds, these dynamic compositions capture shifting forms of bodily energy and emotional intensity, revealing moments of collision, rupture, and transformation.

Through a visual language marked by movement and dissonance, Xie examines the ways individuals navigate social pressures, uncertainty, and contemporary conditions. His work reflects an ongoing investigation into the relationship between the body and its surroundings, where painting becomes a space for recording the complexities, tensions, and vulnerabilities of lived experience.