Cui Xiuwen 崔岫闻 (1967-2018) was born in China's Heilongjiang province. She held an MFA from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (1996) and a BA from Northeast Normal University (1990). As a multimedia artist investigating the realms of human sexuality and spirituality, Cui's experimentations with photography, video, and painting are considerations of the self and soul as simultaneously subject and object. An important creative figure in China's contemporary landscape, Cui's contribution to the arts was recognized in her participation as the first Chinese artist to be invited to exhibit at Tate Modern, in 2004.
Cui Xiuwen's earlier works laid the foundation for these current subject matters. In her widely exhibited video work Ladies Room (2000), Cui hid an inconspicuous spy camera inside the ladies’ bathroom of a popular Beijing karaoke club, recording unfiltered conversations and candid moments of local call girls. In her series of photographs titled Existential Emptiness (2009), a schoolgirl and her life-sized doll companion located in sparse, snowy landscapes, tackle themes of adolescence, identity, and mortality.
Cui was internationally recognized for her work. In 2010, she was awarded the “Most Influential Artist of the Year” title at the Award of Art China and in 2008, the “Global Chinese Female Artist Biennial Award” as bestowed by the Wu Zuoren International Fine Arts Foundation. Cui’s works are in collections at major institutions such as the Tate Modern, UK; Brooklyn Museum, NY; the Ullens Foundation, Belgium; and the National Art Museum of China, China.
