Exclusive Interview | Nanxi Xie: Finding Peace Through Art Amid Growth and Change

By Richard Ren / LAPost – Los Angeles (October 29, 2025)

On October 20, young artist Nanxi Xie opened her solo exhibition “Growing, Changing” at the L-Shape Gallery on the campus of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). The five-day show drew significant attention from both within and outside the campus, marking an important milestone in Xie’s artistic and academic journey between China and the United States.

Born in 2001 in Guangdong, China, Nanxi Xie now divides her time between Shanghai and Los Angeles while studying Fine Arts at CalArts. Her creative practice spans oil painting, calligraphy, digital illustration, and mixed media, blending Eastern and Western aesthetics with philosophical reflections rooted in Taoism, Buddhism, and traditional Chinese art.

“The exhibition features 22 works,” Xie told LAPost in an exclusive interview. “They include oil paintings, Chinese mineral paintings, calligraphy, mixed media, ink art, porcelain, digital illustrations, and paper-fan installations. Regardless of form or material, they all revolve around one theme — change. Water is my core metaphor; it represents both the natural flow of life and the transformation of human emotion.”

Her “Ing” series features eight large blue-toned oil paintings depicting a hat-wearing girl lingering by the water — an emotional journey shared with the viewer. In “Aren’t We All, Water?”, she uses the interaction between lacquer and water to evoke, on paper fans, the fluid connection between humanity and nature. Another series, “I Long to Be / Without Burden,” draws inspiration from Buddhist teachings, extending the themes of change and letting go within an Eastern philosophical framework.

Reflecting on her inspiration, Xie credits a CalArts course titled Silent Music:

“That class taught me how Song-dynasty landscape painters expressed natural transformation through brushwork. Then I realized — I am the transformation. As someone in my twenties, my emotions and perceptions are constantly shifting.”

Xie also spoke candidly about experiencing depression in 2024.

“I felt lost and anxious, so I went back to Shanghai to be with my family. My mother’s homemade dishes, my father’s unconditional support, my sister’s long-distance calls, even my dog’s companionship — all that love helped me grow again,” she said with a smile. “That was when I rediscovered my courage to create. Art isn’t an escape; it’s healing.”

The exhibition’s title, “Growing, Changing,” was inspired by her fondness for the English present-continuous “-ing” — a state of perpetual becoming. “Growth is always in progress,” she said. “It’s open, fluid, and undefined.”

CalArts professor Michael Ned Holte praised the show as “a poetic exhibition that finds reconciliation through fluidity and transformation,” noting that her deep-blue oil paintings capture “a quiet melancholy and release — from a tear, a fallen hat, to a foot stepping into a stream.”

Her former mentor Shirley Tse lauded Xie’s inventive relationship with Chinese calligraphy:

“Most students start by copying ancient texts. Nanxi began by writing her own classical Chinese poems. I admire her courage and originality.”

Classmate Vincent Parkes highlighted her spatial sensibility: “Viewers aren’t just observers — they’re invited to breathe with the works. It’s a beautifully immersive experience.”

Looking ahead, Xie hopes to deepen her exploration of Chinese artistic traditions and infuse Eastern philosophy into contemporary visual language. “I want to keep finding balance between East and West — not only in art, but also in understanding myself,” she said.

In Nanxi Xie’s world, growth and change exist not only on the canvas but within the artist herself. As she puts it poetically:

“I live within change — and change, in turn, defines me.”