- All
- In the middle of NowHere
- Open Home
- My Single-Bed Room
- The Garden of Conjectures
- Form
- 29 Beijing North Rd
- Seigaiha
- The Everyday
- Flag it!
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Breakfast at Tiffany's
Open Home exhibition at Studio One TOI TŪ ( 16 May – 13 Jun 2024 )
欢迎光临寒舍，在这您可畅所欲言，还可小酌一杯，希望有空常来坐坐。
Welcome to my home. Let’s have a chat and a drink or two. Feel free to drop by.
Home is where dreams, thoughts, and memories unfold. Reflecting on life in Auckland's bustling CBD, XU's artwork invites individuals to pause, observe, and wander through the space, navigating the line between daydreams and reality.
It echoes the refuge depicted by Chinese poet Tao Yuanming in his poem "Drinking Wine, Part Five", wherein he describes, "I built my cottage within the realm of men, yet it remained serene, untouched by the noise of chariots and horses...".
The evening sunset
山 气 日 夕 佳
In the middle of NowHere
The Mountain
开门见山
In the middle of NowHere
The Resting Cloud
一片小憩的云
In the middle of NowHere
My house is built amid the world of men, yet with no sound and fury do I ken.
结 庐 在 人 境，而 无 车 马 喧。
In the middle of NowHere
The Shack
寒舍
In the middle of NowHere
My Single-Bed Room exhibition at Window Gallery ( 27 March – 01 May 2024 )
Inspired by the compact apartment living style in Auckland CBD, ‘My Single-Bed Room’ is built on the idea that the room is not merely a physical structure. It also has its imaginary dimensions in our memories, secrets, intimacy, daydreams, and emotional connections. It encourages the audience to explore the essence of home, and a sense of belonging.
My Single-Bed Room
Open Home
My Single-Bed Room
Open Home
My Single-Bed Room Close-Up
Open Home
The Garden Of Conjectures, Empathy Exhibition at Upstairs Gallery
Who Am I, Sexual Desires, Faith, Truth Searching, Fear of Success, Unfulfilled Libido, Fear of Separation, Self-Sabotaging, Happy-Ending Longing, Unhappy Marriage, Exploring the Unknown, Fear of Change, Psychological Intimacy, Sovereignty Fighting. A collection of friends and family, lovers and strangers, symbols, objects, and places (New Zealand, Beijing, Xinjiang). Things are trivia for us, matter to others. We are continuously trying to work through a way to resolve or prove them.
Form #5
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #10
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #1
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #12
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #11
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #14
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #15
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #16
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #2
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #3
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #7
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #8
The Garden of Conjectures
Form #9
The Garden of Conjectures
No. 29 Beijing North Road, Ürümqi, Xinijang, China
Memory has always been one of greatest resources of inspiration and places to visit for me. In this project, I have been studying and researching my own memory of my parents' apartment in Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China. Unlike the usual paintings of memories painted from the actual photographs, I am more interested in depicting my own psychological feelings and experience of the place.
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 1
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 2
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 3
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 4
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 5
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 6
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 7
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 8
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 9
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 10
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 11
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 12
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 13
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 14
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 15
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 16
Form
No. 29 Beijing North Road Ürümqi – 17
Form
Form #17
The Garden of Conjectures
The Sympathy of Curves Exhibition at Depot Artspace
The series is inspired by the Seigaiha motif. Originally used to depict the sea on ancient Chinese maps; it was then adopted by Japanese for use as patterns.
Seigaiha is a Japanese word pronounced ‘Seikaiha’ (青海波); the word literally means big sea waves. As a traditional Japanese pattern, it appears on Japanese ceramic cookware, fabric and wallpaper and symbolises good fortune and happiness.
Oliver has created his own patterns by inventing a system of rules. All the curves are free, not in the sense of departing, but finding each other, holding onto each other, being able to feel and move in relation to each other. The structures are created by the movements of these curves.
Seigaiha Series – Embrace
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Connection
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Congregate
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Understanding
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Camaraderie
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Congeniality
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Tenderness
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Aliance
29 Beijing North Rd
Seigaiha Series – Affection
29 Beijing North Rd
Flag-it! Exhibition at Depot Artspace
Why do we need a flag? According to research, flags have been used as a form of communication for more than 4,000 years, initially for military purposes and then evolved to represent political parties and countries. But is a national flag really able to represent its country’s culture, the people and the place? To me, a flag is a form of an abstraction, a code of encryption.
This flag is generated by a self-made software populated with the English text of the Treaty of Waitangi (Feb, 1840). The colours are taken from the current New Zealand National flag as well as the proportion. The software goes through the text, replaces a verb with a red square, a noun with a white square, the rest of POS (parts of speech) with a blue square and throws everything else away.
Happy Day All In One
Seigaiha
FAT 32
Seigaiha
Avocado Mouse
Seigaiha
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Reflecting on the power outages in Auckland City, New Zealand in the last few years, I took this photo on the tallest structure in Auckland, Sky Tower. It Looks right over the waterfront area and the harbour bridge, which connects Auckland CBD to North Shore.
Self Portrait
TOF
Read More
In the middle of NowHere at Play Station (12 Feb — 07 March 2026)
In the middle of NowHere concludes Xú’s exhibition trilogy, following My Single-Bed Room and Open home (2024). Departing from the vast, data-driven complexity of Large Language Models, Xú presents a ‘Small Language Model for States of Being’, a minimalist framework that reimplements the Traffic Light System as a regulatory interface for human feelings. Green represents grounded, declarative statements; Yellow signals hesitant, introspective questions; and Red indicates disruptive exclamations.
In NowHere Xú uses a lexicon of micro-statements formatted by a strict grammar structure— [Pronoun] + [Linking Verb] + [Complement]—to map the cycles of assertion, doubt, and reaffirmation. This constraint creates a family of ‘micro-statements' such as “I am hungry”, “I am lonely” or “We are together.”
By coding emotional movements into nine-word cycles, it translates the grounded affirmation of “I am here”, the hesitant doubt of “Am I here?”, and the reaffirmation of “Here I am”, into signals of green, yellow, and red. The work offers a ‘self-check-in tool’ to navigate the tension between systemic compliance and our inner landscapes.
At this particular moment in time, how do you feel? We invite you to write it down anywhere on the gallery wall. Be present. To be visible for other people to see. Share their status on the timeline of their social media. I am visible, am I visible, visible I am.
Sponsored by Parrotdog
Photography by Belinda Whitta
With help from Creative New Zealand
Is this home
Love is Love
Are you tired
Love is Love
The Wandering Cloud
Love is Love
Are we together
Love is Love
Are you angry
Love is Love
Is this over
Love is Love
We are together
Love is Love
The Wall of Emotions
The audience writes down their feelings during the exhibition period.
Love is Love