Larry Lee portrait by YoungSun Choi
Guanyu Xu
Larry Lee + Guanyu Xu
Date of Conversation
03.2026
Bios
Larry Lee is a multimedia artist, independent curator, and writer who earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he teaches in the Art History, Theory and Criticism; Contemporary Practices, and Academic Spine departments. He is also adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University.
His practice includes sculpture, video, installation, and painting that “remakes” his personal history in specific and the Asian American experience in general into stylized multimedia objects and images he facetiously terms “orientalia”. His work has been exhibited in Chicago at the Chicago Cultural Center, Gallery 400 and Evanston Arts Center as well as New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, New Haven and Glasgow, Scotland. In addition to his curatorial project, Molar Productions, Lee collaborates with the painter Jason Dunda to perform as "The International Chefs of Mystery!". In the spring of 2022, he launched the Spotlight Series at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago to showcase work by local, emerging, and mid-career artists of Chinese descent and celebrate the divergent artistic visions and experiences of being Chinese in America that reflect upon their relationship to contemporary visual culture to a wider audience within the community.
徐冠宇 Guanyu Xu (b.1993 Beijing) is an artist currently based in Chicago and Beijing. He is the recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Creative Projects Grant, Chicago DCASE Artist Grant, CENTER Development Grant, Hyéres International Festival Prize, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition, and Kodak Film Photo Award. He has received artist residencies including ACRE (Steuben, WI), Light Work (Syracuse, NY), Latitude (Chicago, IL), Pioneer Works (New York, NY), and Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, China).
His works have been exhibited and screened internationally, including the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; International Center of Photography, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; New Orlean Museum of Art, New Orleans; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; 36th Kasseler Dokfest, Germany, and others. His work can be found in public collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. His works have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, ArtAsiaPacific, The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Dazed, and China Photographic Publishing House.
Heuristically programmed algorithmic event horizon
enamel on laser cut MDF
25 1/2” x 36”
2022
7 Star Praying Mantis Northern Shaolin Martian Manhunter
polystyrene, cardboard and metal drum containers, wooden table base, enamel paint
96” x 48” in diameter
2023