Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/LEO XU Projects


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) Qwaiiplayer (talk) 14:09, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

LEO XU Projects

 * – ( View AfD View log )

It seems like that sources in the article failed to prove its notability. DreamerBlue (talk) 10:41, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Arts-related deletion discussions. AllyD (talk) 10:46, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of China-related deletion discussions. AllyD (talk) 10:46, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Comment: The article text has not been updated to reflect what appears to have been the termination of the project in 2017. This interview(Artnet, November 2017) with the founder includes discussion about it. AllyD (talk) 10:57, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, ✗  plicit  11:46, 1 July 2021 (UTC)
 * There has been sustained coverage of the project and the person. Magazines like Apollo (magazine) and Flash Art  have written about him. That wouldn't satisfy NCORP, but a biography might be possible. Move it to Leo Xu, update the article and add sources. Vexations (talk) 20:36, 2 July 2021 (UTC)
 * In general, I would like WP and associated resources to develop towards supporting understandings of how artist and gallery ecosystems evolve in place and time, but recognise that articles on individual galleries/spaces can have a hard time demonstrating that WP:NCORP is met. makes an interesting suggestion to consider this as a potentially-adjustable biographical article about a person rather than about a particular project which they operated for a time. Viewed from that perspective, we have the Apollo 40-under-40 profile (person,project), the 2015 Flash Art interview (person, project) and the 2017 Artnet interview (person, project and new role) and more recently, in-role quotations from the subject as an employee at David Zwirner Gallery (Reuters). I don't think these are sufficiently strongly associated with the person more than the project, however, so think it more appropriate to continue discussing this as a project, therefore under WP:NCORP or WP:GNG. AllyD (talk) 11:52, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  The article notes: "Another space banking on the unpredictable is Leo Xu Projects. Started in 2011 by the former associate director of James Cohan Shanghai, the space has made a splash glob- ally, exhibiting at Frieze London and at Art Basel in both Switzerland and Hong Kong. Though the gallery’s brick-and-mortar space is in the French Concession, the program, heavy in new media, finds itself deployed both in the virtual realm and in a variety of places around the city, including shopping malls, schools, and vacant sites pegged for future development.  “My idea was that a new model of gallery in a heavily digitized  and globalized age should seize the advantages of new media and tech and take chances to grow beyond a mere system of selling artworks from gallery space and art fair booths to being a liaison between artists and institutions,” says Xu."  The article has a section titled "9. Leo Xu Projects (Shanghai, China)". The article notes: "In 2011, the young writer and curator Leo Xu read New Museum founder Marcia Tucker’s memoir A Short Life of Trouble and was so taken with her pledge to support “new art and new ideas” that he quit his job as James Cohan Gallery’s associate director in Shanghai and opened his own project space-slash-gallery in the city, with initial backing from the art entrepreneur David Chau. Since then, the director—now 35—has built Leo Xu Projects into one of the most reliably boundary-marker-moving galleries in China, turning his three-story headquarters in Shanghai’s stately French Concession neighborhood into a hive of forward-thinking experimentation. Artists in the gallery include the provocative portrait photographer Pixy Liao (think Ryan McGinley, only female and Chinese), the conceptual wallpaperist Liu Shiyuan, the unsettling “SciTech” artist Xu Wenkai (who goes by aaajiao), acclaimed video artist Cheng Ran, and the in-demand painters Cui Jie and Li Qing."  The article notes: "Initially backed by the art entrepreneur David Chau, Xu’s gallery quickly gained a reputation for pushing the envelope. He found ever inventive ways to survive at the emerging end of the market by regularly organising exhibitions outside of the traditional gallery venue and modelling his business on architecture firms by selling artists’ ideas to other sectors—shopping malls or urban planners. Xu championed pioneering artists such as the portrait photographer Pixy Liao and the media artist and activist Xu Wenkai (better known as aaajiao). He was also among the first to show international artists such as Danh Vo and Wolfgang Tillmans in China. ... Mathieu Borysevicz, the owner of the Shanghai gallery Bank, describes Xu as a “poster boy for young indie galleries” in China. “He charted a place for smaller glocal sensibilities to thrive amongst the old bastion of China's hitherto big boy scene. Now he enters the next phase in the industry's metamorphosis.”" There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Leo Xu Projects to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 09:31, 5 July 2021 (UTC) 

<ul><li>Comment: Sources that discuss both Leo Xu and his gallery but are more focused on Leo Xu the person:<ol> <li> The book notes that "Chau helped launch two of Shanghai's best galleries, the former Leo Xu Projects and Antenna Space, both run by young Chinese curators." The book notes: "Leo Xu is one of these emerging art dealers, having opened his gallery, Leo Xu Projects, in 2011 at the age of 29. Located down a quiet lane in the French Concession, the three-story gallery hosted exhibitions of an international array of artists, ranging from Cheng Ran and Cui Jie to Gabriel Lester and Michael Lin. But most importantly, Xu made significant inroads in the international art market on behalf of his artists, participating in events like the Frieze Art Fair in New York and collaborating with galleries such as Metro Pictures and David Kordansky to bring exhibitions to the USA. Now Xu is moving on, taking the position as gallery director for David Zwirner's new space in Hong Kong. When asked why he became an art dealer, Xu answers, “I didn't have any other choice.” Hoping to become a curator after completing his degree at Shanghai International Studies University, his optimism was dashed by his experience working in the short-lived Duolon Art Museum in Shanghai. He then went on to work as a gallery director at Chambers Fine Art in Beijing and the Shanghai branch of New York's James Cohan Gallery. [more coverage]"</li> <li> The article notes: "A former artist himself who is well versed in bridging East and West, Xu first opened a Beijing branch for New York’s Chambers Fine Art and then directed a Shanghai satellite for James Cohan Gallery, also in New York. Xu was inspired to open his own operation after reading New Museum founder Marcia Tucker’s classic memoir of art-world disruption, A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the Art World. Now joining former Christie’s vice president Jennifer Yum in opening Zwirner’s Hong Kong gallery in January, Xu is starting a new chapter at an especially auspicious moment in the art business, when Chinese collectors have an appetite for Western art like never before."</li> <li> The article provides 115 words of coverage about Leo Xu and his gallery.</li> <li> The article notes: "Xu had become known for presenting innovative exhibitions by young and emerging Chinese artists, such as Pixy Yijun Liao, Shiyuan Liu, Chen Wei and Xu Wenkai, better known as aaajiao. Many of their projects focus on urbanism and the relationship between new media and its influence on the visual culture of modern China. Working with institutions such as the Power Station of Art in Shanghai and the Jewish Museum in New York, Xu had been at the forefront of an international dialogue."</li> </ol>Cunard (talk) 09:31, 5 July 2021 (UTC)</li></ul>

<div class="xfd_relist" style="border-top: 1px solid #AAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAA; padding: 0px 25px;"> Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Comment: I think there is enough coverage to support separate articles about Leo Xu the artist and Leo Xu Projects the art gallery. Cunard (talk) 09:31, 5 July 2021 (UTC)
 * link to Opulence and Turbulence: Shanghai’s Art Scene From the Ground Up by Hunter Braithwaite: https://web.archive.org/web/20160222205426/http://www.blouinartinfo.com:80/news/story/1334978/opulence-and-turbulence-shanghais-art-scene-from-the-ground Vexations (talk) 12:15, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America1000 09:08, 9 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep agree per Cunard. Thank you for finding source. VocalIndia (talk) 07:44, 14 July 2021 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.