Artist Biography
Sun Xun (b. 1980, Fuxin, China, based in Beijing, China) is best known for his labour-intensive stop-motion films that critically address themes of truth, culture, history and politics. He also considers how they are portrayed differently across official narratives and personal recollections. Meticulously created from woodblock prints and drawings in ink, oil and charcoal, his work layers both realistic and fantastical images to tell stories that resist straightforward readings.
At the dawn of new economic reforms in 1980s China, Sun’s hometown of Fuxin, a remote agricultural province, remained largely unchanged following the rise and fall of its coal industry. It stood in stark contrast to the bigger cities undergoing rapid transformation. When Sun moved to metropolitan Hangzhou for his studies, the sense of disorientation he felt deepened his awareness of this disparity. These experiences would form the foundations of the multilayered worlds in his work. In Mythological Time (2016), Sun’s animation unfolds as a journey through the dystopian portrayal of a coal mining town. Projected onto full-height murals that depict human figures and mythical creatures from the film, the work thrusts visitors into an immersive viewing experience that collapses their sense of time and perspective.
Sun obtained his BFA in Printmaking from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou in 2005. His work is found in major collections including Brooklyn Museum, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery; TANK Shanghai; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Arario Museum, Seoul; Singapore Art Museum; M+, Hong Kong; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Birmingham Museum of Art; Asia Society, New York; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Notable recent solo exhibitions include Parallel Circus (2024), TANK Shanghai; Tears of Chiwen (2023), Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts; Mythological Time (2021), Vancouver Art Gallery; Time Spy (2019), Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Cordoba; Frontier, Part II (2019), Shanghai Museum of Glass; Time Spy (2019), The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida; Sun Xun (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Time Spy (2018), Saint Louis Art Museum. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including Pacific Century—E Hoʻomau no Moananuiākea (2022), 1st Hawai‘i Triennial, Honolulu; Spirit of Youth (2021), 5th Triennial of Chinese Industrial Art Prints, Wuhan; We Do Not Dream Alone (2021), 1st Asia Society Triennial, New York; The Construction of the Possible (2019), 13th Havana Biennial;
Artist Making Movement (2015), 5th Asian Art Biennial, Taichung; Social Factory (2014), 10th Shanghai Biennale; 1st Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012), Kochi; APT7 (2012), 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane; Modern Monsters / Death and Life of Fiction (2012), 8th Taipei Biennial; The Unexpected Guest (2012), 7th Liverpool Biennial; OUR MAGIC HOUR (2011), 4th Yokohama Triennale; and Arts and Cities (2010), 1st Aichi Triennale.
Sun had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2012, resulting in the presentation Republic of Jing Bang 鲸邦实习共和国: Citizens Wanted! (2014) at Art Basel Hong Kong’s Encounters in 2014.