{"id":76700,"date":"2025-10-30T10:24:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=76700"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:01:17","slug":"exclusive-interview-nanxi-xie-finding-peace-through-art-amid-growth-and-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=76700","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview | Nanxi Xie: Finding Peace Through Art Amid Growth and Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Ren \/ LAPost \u2013 Los Angeles (October 29, 2025)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 20, young artist Nanxi Xie opened her solo exhibition \u201cGrowing, Changing\u201d<\/em> 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\u2019s artistic and academic journey between China and the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nanxi Xie’s Solo Show “Growing, Changing” (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nanxi conversing with viewers on reception (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe exhibition features 22 works,\u201d Xie told LAPost in an exclusive interview. \u201cThey 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 \u2014 change. Water is my core metaphor; it represents both the natural flow of life and the transformation of human emotion.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Ing Series – Changing (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Her \u201cIng\u201d<\/em> series features eight large blue-toned oil paintings depicting a hat-wearing girl lingering by the water \u2014 an emotional journey shared with the viewer. In \u201cAren\u2019t We All, Water?\u201d<\/em>, she uses the interaction between lacquer and water to evoke, on paper fans, the fluid connection between humanity and nature. Another series, \u201cI Long to Be \/ Without Burden,\u201d<\/em> draws inspiration from Buddhist teachings, extending the themes of change<\/em> and letting go<\/em> within an Eastern philosophical framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I Long To Be (Left), Without Burden (Right) (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Reflecting on her inspiration, Xie credits a CalArts course titled Silent Music<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat class taught me how Song-dynasty landscape painters expressed natural transformation through brushwork. Then I realized \u2014 I am the transformation. As someone in my twenties, my emotions and perceptions are constantly shifting.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Xie also spoke candidly about experiencing depression in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt lost and anxious, so I went back to Shanghai to be with my family. My mother\u2019s homemade dishes, my father\u2019s unconditional support, my sister\u2019s long-distance calls, even my dog\u2019s companionship \u2014 all that love helped me grow again,\u201d she said with a smile. \u201cThat was when I rediscovered my courage to create. Art isn\u2019t an escape; it\u2019s healing.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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In Water, I Am Settling I (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The exhibition\u2019s title, \u201cGrowing, Changing,\u201d<\/em> was inspired by her fondness for the English present-continuous \u201c-ing\u201d \u2014 a state of perpetual becoming. \u201cGrowth is always in progress,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s open, fluid, and undefined.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CalArts professor Michael Ned Holte praised the show as \u201ca poetic exhibition that finds reconciliation through fluidity and transformation,\u201d noting that her deep-blue oil paintings capture \u201ca quiet melancholy and release \u2014 from a tear, a fallen hat, to a foot stepping into a stream.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her former mentor Shirley Tse lauded Xie\u2019s inventive relationship with Chinese calligraphy:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost students start by copying ancient texts. Nanxi began by writing her own classical Chinese poems. I admire her courage and originality.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Classmate Vincent Parkes highlighted her spatial sensibility: \u201cViewers aren\u2019t just observers \u2014 they\u2019re invited to breathe with the works. It\u2019s a beautifully immersive experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nanxi Xie’s reception (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking ahead, Xie hopes to deepen her exploration of Chinese artistic traditions and infuse Eastern philosophy into contemporary visual language. \u201cI want to keep finding balance between East and West \u2014 not only in art, but also in understanding myself,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Nanxi Xie\u2019s world, growth<\/em> and change<\/em> exist not only on the canvas but within the artist herself. As she puts it poetically:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI live within change \u2014 and change, in turn, defines me.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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