Xiyadie is a self-taught traditional Chinese papercut artist who started creating works with homoerotic themes to tell his narrative of transformation. Xiyadiemeans Siberian Butterfly, a name he chose after his move to Beijing as a migrant worker in 2005, where he found an accepting community in the burgeoning gay subcultural scene. As he relates, the Siberian Butterfly is a northern creature. Surviving in the harshest conditions, it maintains its vanity and pursuit of freedom in an environment that does not lend political agency or representation to queer-identifying people.
Xiyadie presented his works in the Main Exhibition of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, entitled “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere”, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. His solo exhibitions were shown at Blindspot Gallery (Hong Kong, 2024), The Drawing Center (New York, 2023), Flazh!Alley Art Studio (Los Angeles, 2012), and the Beijing LGBT Center(Beijing 2010), among others. Xiyadie’s works have also been shown in group exhibitions at Museude Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo, 2024), Para Site (Hong Kong, 2024, 2017), Macalline Center of Art (Beijing, 2024), ICA NYU Shanghai (Shanghai, 2023), Kunsthal Gent (Gent, 2023), Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong, 2022), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2022), Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, 2020), Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (Bangkok, 2019), Taipei MOCA (Taipei, 2019), , and Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm, 2012) among others. Xiyadie has also participated in the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana, 2019) and the 12th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, 2018).
Xiyadie currently lives and works in Shaanxi province, China.
