Don’t Kill Me I’m in Love! A Tribute to Huang Xiaopeng

Curated by Anthony Yung.

Participating artists: Huang Xiaopeng with Cui Qianshan, Du Zhongjian, Fang Di, Feng Hanting, Fong Fo, Hu Xiangqian, Huang Cheng, Huang Zhoutuo, Li Lulu, Lin Aojie, BUBU (Liu Jiangwen), Lu Shan, Mak Yongxi, Mo Xiliang, Wu Sibo, Sue Hui, Yang Meiyan, Ye Su (Zhang Fan), Zhang Yin, Zhong Jialing 

Huang Xiaopeng has been one of the most important Guangdong artists of the past two decades. He enrolled at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1979, a testament to his academic excellence. Meanwhile, he was reportedly considered the academy’s top “bad boy,” because he smoked, drank, had long hair, and listened to rock music. 

Xiaopeng was accepted into the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1990 to pursue his master’s degree. He has lived and worked in the UK throughout the 1990s. 

In 2003, Xiaopeng returned to Guangzhou and began to teach at his alma mater, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. From 2004 through 2012, he was in charge of Contemporary Art Experiment Elective Course and became the leading teacher of the “Fifth Studio.” Filled with enthusiasm and idealism, he was a pioneer in teaching contemporary art at fine arts academies in China, profoundly influencing several generations of young artists in Guangzhou. After leaving the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2012, he founded, together with Xu Tan, “HuangBian Station,” a platform to foster discussion and exchange among artists. 

In late 2018, Xiaopeng started planning to move to Berlin. In a diary entry for 18 April, 2019, he noted his aspirations for the future and jotted down these passionate words: DON’T KILL ME I’M IN LOVE! 

However, in the least expected way, on October 6, 2020, Xiaopeng died of a heart attack in Berlin at the age of 60. 

The current exhibition is the first-ever systematic presentation of the key phases of Xiaopeng’s artistic career. Together with research work and his archives, it attempts to sketch an outline of Xiaopeng’s artistic career. The exhibition is also a result of the joint effort by his students. Some students are making new works to interpret and respond to Xiaopeng’s practice, his situational awareness, and the values that he upheld. Some others contribute to the various aspects of realising the exhibition, from design to production to writing. 

After all, as his students, colleagues, and supporters, only by continuously working, creating, and doing interesting things can we best pay tribute to Xiaopeng. 

Please click here to read the full version at timesmuseum.org.

Huang Xiaopeng’s works were featured in exhibitions worldwide, which include “Fear, No Fear” (Times Art Center, Berlin, Germany, 2021), “Chinafrika. under construction” (Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany, 2017), “The Man Who Never Threw Anything Away” (Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China, 2017), “Pulse of the Pearl River Delta” (BFI, London, UK, 2016), “A Hundred Years of Shame – Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations” (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2015), “The Poplar Tree and Mirror” (ISCP, New York, U.S., 2014), “Giorgio Andreotta Calo, Jalal Toufic, Huang Xiaopeng” (Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 2011), “Farewell to Postcolonialism: The Third Guangzhou Triennial” (Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2008). “The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now” (P.S.1 MOMA, New York, U.S., 2006), to name a few.