INEICHEN AUCTIONEERS  is pleased to offer for sale artworks by Xiao Se, a talented and unique force in Chinese contemporary art, featuring his trademarks to recent art experiments.

The artist Xiao Se (b.1970) is best known for his richly detailed paintings that skillfully merge a realist portrayal of commoners and their complex feelings of living in contemporary China with the figures and religious symbols in the early Renaissance masterpieces. What lies behind the seemingly surrealist expression, however, is extraordinary experiences and lessons from life.

Xiao grew up in Beijing in the second half of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He lived the tumultuous socio-political and cultural climate during the 1978 liberalist economic reform and the late ’80s student movements. His extensive travel experience in border areas and the Chinese hinterland provided him with critical insights into heterogenous living conditions and persistent longing for a good life in postsocialist China. After recovering from a serious illness during 2019-2020, Xiao has woken up to realization, that the desire for material gain, the illiberal political system, and cybersecurity and digital governance have turned cultural diversity into an emergency of our time.