The opening ceremony of Mao Xuhui: Emergence of the Patriarch was held with distinction on November 27, 2025, at the Palazzo Grimani Museum in Venice, Italy. The exhibition presented nearly four decades of the artist’s creative practice, spanning from the 1980s to the present, and covering all major historical phases of his career. The exhibition was curated by art historian Lü Peng, with Li Guohua and Carlotta Scarpa serving as co-curators. It was jointly presented by L-Art Gallery and Manuela Schiavano.
Distinguished guests at the opening included Yao Yuandongfang, Director of the Lin Fengmian Art Museum and head of the Lin Fengmian Art Foundation; art collector Zhu Yonglei; writer and curator Olga Strada, former Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow; Academy Award–winning makeup artist Paul Pattison; exhibition and event producer Elizaveta Fursova; scholar of urban history and visual culture Heiner Krellig; and researcher in archaeology and digital cultural heritage Patrizia Zanfagna, among others.
Through different series of works, Emergence of the Patriarch traced Mao Xuhui’s artistic journey over nearly forty years and revealed his sustained and profound inquiry into power, memory, and the conditions of human existence. As a key participant in and driving force behind the “Southwestern Art Group” and the “New Figurative Movement” of the 1980s, Mao Xuhui’s artistic practice not only mirrors the broader development of contemporary Chinese art over the past four decades, but also offers international audiences a vivid lens through which to understand China’s social transformations and the spiritual history of the individual.
