Su Xiaobai’s lacquer project

Su Xiaobai will open “Alchemical Universe” at Venice’s Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel on May 9, showing lacquer paintings across the historic palazzo through November 22. (e-flux.com) The exhibition is an official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2026, and it is presented by the Su Xiaobai Foundation with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Stephen Little curated the show, and architect Kulapat Yantrasast designed it. (e-flux.com) (myartguides.com) The foundation said the exhibition includes 35 works installed through the palazzo’s rooms, from Su’s first lacquer experiments in 2003 to recent paintings made for Venice. A central group comes from “Niao Niao,” a newer series named for a Chinese poetic phrase tied to transience and evanescence. (suxiaobai-foundation.org) Su’s medium is natural lacquer, a sap-based material long associated with ritual and decorative objects in East Asia rather than contemporary abstract painting. Wallpaper reported that Su left oil painting for lacquer in 2003 and has spent the past two decades pushing the material into contemporary abstraction. (wallpaper.com) That material history sits at the center of the Venice presentation, because the show places heavily worked, layered lacquer surfaces inside a 15th-century Venetian palace. The foundation lists the venue as Cannaregio 6099, and outside guides describe Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel as one of Venice’s better-preserved late Gothic palazzi. (suxiaobai-foundation.org) (ermakvagus.com) Su was born in Wuhan in 1949 and studied in Wuhan, Beijing, and Düsseldorf before building a practice between Shanghai and Düsseldorf. His foundation says he attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Wuhan from 1965 to 1970, the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 1985 to 1987, and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1987 to 1992. (suxiaobai-foundation.org) The Venice show also extends a longer museum and gallery track record outside China. Su’s recent exhibition list includes shows at Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong, Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, and White Cube in London. (artono.com) Admission is free, according to the foundation’s exhibition listing. For Venice this year, that means a centuries-old palazzo will be given over, room by room, to 35 lacquer works by an artist who has spent more than 20 years testing what that material can do. (suxiaobai-foundation.org)