Xiyadie is a self-taught traditional Chinese papercut artist who started creating works with homoerotic themes to tell his narrative of transformation. Xiyadie means 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.
His solo exhibitions include “Queer Cut Utopias” at the Drawing Center (New York, 2023); “Metamorphosis of a Butterfly: A Kaleidoscope Vision of Life by a Gay Chinese Artist” at Flazh!Alley Art Studio (San Pedro, 2012), and “Xiyadie” at the Beijing LGBT Center (Beijing 2010), among others. Xiyadie’s works have also been shown in group exhibitions at ICA NYU Shanghai (Shanghai, 2023); Kunsthal Gent (Ghent, 2023); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong, 2022) as part of “Myth Makers — Spectrosynthesis III”; Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 2022); Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, 2020); Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (Bangkok, 2019); Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Taipei MOCA (Taipei, 2019), and Para site (Hong Kong, 2017), 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, China.
