Chen Shaoxiong, born in 1962 in Guangdong and educated in the printmaking department of the Guangzhou Fine Art Academy, is a founding member of the Big Tail Elephant Collective, one of the most important artistic collectives in the history of contemporary Chinese art.

The artist’s conceptual work employs a variety of media, including photography, video, installation and ink painting, to investigate the dynamics of China’s rapidly changing cityscapes. Often set against the background of an imaginative or imaginary skyline, the artist records the hectic pace and absurdity of everyday existence: fragments from family life, political issues, rumors from the entertainment industry, restaurants, nightlife, and prostitution.

Chen Shaoxiong begins with the directness of media such as traditional ink painting and transforms it into technical media such as video; it is a combination of this and the uncomplicated manner in which the everyday confront more extraordinary issues of modern life that gives the work added import. Thematically, his work often deals with the rapidly urbanizing and constantly changing environments of his home province in southern China, the nature of the crowd, the dominance of the image, the aesthetics of globalization, and public or collective memory.

Solo Exhibitions
2008
Collective Memory, Art & Public - Cabinet PH, Geneva, Switzerland
Cash-In, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong       
2007
Visible and Invisible, Known and Unknown, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing, China
Chen Shaoxiong, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, Germany
2006
Chen Shaoxiong, Art & Public - Cabinet PH, Geneva, Switzerland
Ink City on Paper, The Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China
Let’s See Who’s Lucky, BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, China
2005
Double Landscape, Grace Alexander Contemporary, Zurich, Switzerland
Ink City: New Works by Chen Shaoxiong, The Courtyard Annex, Beijing,China
2003
Anti-C.S.X., Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China  

Group Exhibitions
2008
Orient Without Borders, Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Refabricating City, Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture,Shenzhen/Hong Kong, China
Made Up, Liverpool Biennial 2008, Liverpool, U.K.
Seventh Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea
Xijing Olympics, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing, China
Asia, Third Nanjing Triennial, Nanjing, China
China Power Station 3, Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Asian Art Triennial, Manchester, U.K.
Too Early for Vacation, ev+a, Limerick, U.K.
The Fifth Floor, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, U.K.
Seoul Station 2008: I Have Nothing to Say but I Am Saying It, Seoul, South Korea
2007
One Fine Day, Rodin Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Tomorrow, Samuso Space for Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea
Reboot: The Third Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China
City_Net Asia 2007, Seoul Museum Of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture From Japan, Long March Space,Beijing/ Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Tomorrow Now—When Design Meets Science Fiction, Mudam – Musèe d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
Critical Mass – Kritische Masse II, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
All About Laughter: Humor in Contemporary Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2006
International Ink Biennale of Shenzhen: Ink, Life, Taste-To Sugar Add Some Salt,He Xiangning Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China
Alllooksame? Art China Japan Korea, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy
China Power Station: Part 1, Serpentine Gallery, London, U.K.
Summer Holiday, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing, China
Infiltration: Idylls and Visions, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Guangdong-Tokyo, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan
China-Between Past and Future, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany
Mirror Worlds––New Video Art from Asia, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australi
2005
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K.
City, Open Door! Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Shenzhen, China
The 2nd Guangzhou Triennial: BEYOND-an Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
The 3rd Tirana Biennale: Go Inside, National Art Gallery, Tirana, Albania
Follow Me! Chinese Art at the Threshold of the New Millennium, Mori Art Museum,Tokyo, Japan
Montpellier-China: 1 (The 1St Montpellier Biennale of Chinese Contemporary Art),Montpellier, France
Emergency Biennale in Chechnya: A Suitcase from Paris to Grosny, Palais de Tokyo,Paris, France
Zooming into Focus, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
China! China!! China!!! Grace Alexander Contemporary Art Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
In-Between Realities, Shanghai Gallery of Art Three on the Bund, Shanghai, Chin
2004
Making Differences, Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Zooming into Focus, University Art Gallery San Diego State University, San Diego, U.S.
Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Stopover Hong Kong, Hanart T Z Gallery, Hong Kong, China
Light As Fuck! Shanghai Assemblage 2000-2004, The National Museum of Art, Norway, Oslo
A l1ouest du sud de l1est, Center of Contemporary Art, Sète/Villa Arson, Nice, France
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China, International Center of Photography, New York
2003
The Fifth System: Public Art in the Age of “Post-Planning”, Hexiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Fabricated Paradises, Le Parvis Centre of Contemporary Art, Ibos, France
10th Biennial of the Moving Image, Geneva, Switzerland
Everyday-Contemporary Art from Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Z.O.U.: Zone of Urgency, 50th Venice Biennale
2002
Pause: Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea
New Internationalism, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Golden Harvest, the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Moist: Multimedia Art Asia Pacific, The Art Museum of China Millennium Monument, Beijing, China
Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art-Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Urban Creation – Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Under Construction, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Synthetic Reality, East Modern Art Centre, Beijing, China
Sorry for the Inconveniece, Siam Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand
2001
New Media Art of China, Loft New Media Art Space, Beijing, China
City Slang, He Xiangning Museum, Shenzhen, China
Chinese Photography Now, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Living in Time, National Gallery Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany
The New-Media Art Festival: Non-Linear Narrative, China Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China
2000
Our Chinese Friends, Bauhaus-University and ACC Gallery, Weimar, Germany
Individual and Society in Art, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China
Multimedia Art Asia Pacific 2000 Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane, Australia
Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival 2000, Pusan Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pusan, South Korea
Fuck Off, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, China
2nd Festival International d’Arts Multimedia, Urbains Belfort, Belfort, France 
1999
Cities on the Move 4,5,6,7, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Hayward Gallery, London, U.K.; Bangkok, Thailand; National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
Fast>>Forward: New Chinese Video Art, Contemporary Art Center, Macau, China
Art For Sale, Shanghai Plaza, Shanghai, China
9th International Photography Biennial, Image Center, Mexico City, Mexico
8th Biennial of Moving Images, Saint-Gervais, Geneva, Switzerlan
1998
Breach, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Transmediale’98, 11th Video Festival, Podewil, Berlin, Germany
Cities on the Move 2,3: CAPC, Bordeaux; PS1, New York, U.S.
16th World-Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Inside Out, PS1, New York; MoMA, New York; San Francisco, U.S.
Big Tail Elephant, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Germany
1997
Another Long March: Chinese Conceptual Art, Breda, The Netherlands
Demonstration of Video Art’ 97 China, Gallery of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Cities on the Move, Secession, Vienna, Austria
New Asia, New City, New Art, Shanghai Contemporary Art Exhibition Hall, Shanghai, China
1996
Phenomenon and Image Video Art, China Fine Art Academy, Hangzhou, China  
1994
No Room, No.14 Sanyu Road, Guangzhou, China  
1993
Third Exhibition of Big Tail Elephant Group, Red Ants Bar, Guangzhou, China
1992
Big Tail Elephant Group, Broadcast/Television University, Guangzhou, China       
1991
Exhibition of Big Tail Elephant Group, Guangzhou Workers’ Palace, Guangzhou, China