Chinese artist Su Xiaobai presents "Su Xiaobai's Alchemical Universe," a collateral exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale, at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in Venice. The show features 35 lacquer-based works spanning three decades, from 2003 to new pieces created for the Biennale, including suspended installations made from salvaged roof tiles. Su, trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, transforms natural lacquer into sculptural surfaces through a meditative, alchemical process involving over 20 layers per painting.
The exhibition matters because it highlights Su's unique fusion of Chinese literati traditions and postwar European modernism, bridging ancient lacquer techniques with contemporary material practice. As an official collateral event of the Venice Biennale, presented by the Su Xiaobai Foundation in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the show underscores the Biennale's ongoing engagement with alchemical themes and the global dialogue between tradition and innovation in visual art.