My Favourite Things: Leo Xu 

Hong Kong-based gallerist Leo Xu shares the favourite pieces from his art collection. 

“Art is the fruit of people’s creativity,” says Shanghai-born Leo Xu, the gallerist and collector who launched David Zwirner in Hong Kong in 2018. He previously ran his own eponymous gallery in Shanghai and was the first to introduce a number of international artists to China, including photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. “There are so many great things in the world that I’m unable to create myself. Nevertheless, I want to keep them in my life and live with them. Although it naturally complements my profession, this is the ultimate motivation for me to collect art.” 

Here he shares personal favourites from his art collection.  

Shen Han Saftgrün (2020) 

After finishing the art fairs in Shanghai last year, I visited some galleries in the city and came across this painting by Shen Han in a group exhibition at Gallery Vacancy. I immediately fell in love with it. I have always loved Abstract Expressionist works, such as those by Joan Mitchell, because I see a lot of similarities with Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy. Shen Han’s works have inherited expressionist characters, while also demonstrating an involvement with the reality of contemporary life.  

Wolfgang Tillmans Frank Ocean, Berlin (2015) 

This is the first work you saw at Wolfgang Tillmans’s retrospective at Fondation Beyeler in 2017. Through his lens, Frank Ocean looked really attractive. I was really struck by the work and I wanted it. This idea was hovering in my mind until, two years later, I decided to buy it as a birthday gift to myself.  

Li Qing Broken Window (2011) 

I came across this work in Beijing 10 years ago. This work motivated me to represent Li Qing. I see the philosophy of Chinese art in it. It’s the story of the Magic Brush and Ma Liang: when you can paint so well, what’s in the painting will walk out and become reality. Li Qing invented a genre between painting and sculpture. Hung at home, it creates an illusion. You can’t tell if it’s a real or surreal window.  

Jian Yi-Hong Feet Together and Face Down (2018) 

I bought this work from Michael Ku Gallery at Taipei Dangdai. Jian Yi-Hong brings together comic culture from the West and ink painting from the East. Meanwhile, his works always represent homosexual relationships and the taboo of lust in our culture. But he suggests it in a hilarious way, which is very rare in our culture.