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Xiaowen Zhu is an author, curator, lecturer, and the Director of esea contemporary, the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds. esea contemporary is situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, home to one of the largest East Asian populations in the UK. She is a member of the British Council's Arts and Creative Economy Advisory Group.
Since assuming leadership, Zhu has led esea contemporary through a pivotal transformation, reshaping its identity with a broader, more inclusive vision centred on community engagement and cross-cultural dialogue. Under her direction, the organisation has developed a dynamic and multifaceted programme encompassing exhibitions, residencies, performances, talks, workshops, digital commissions, and long-term community initiatives. Headquartered in Manchester, esea contemporary now operates with an increasingly international perspective, expanding its reach through meaningful collaborations and project-based support from institutions including Liverpool Biennial, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Fondazione Torino Musei, the Bagri Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation, Danish Arts Foundation, and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, to name just a few. Academic partnerships include the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Salford. Through this sustained and ambitious approach, Zhu has re-positioned esea contemporary as a vital platform for art practices informed by East and Southeast Asian perspectives, and a leading voice in contemporary cultural discourse both in the UK and globally.
Zhu has worked internationally in Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin as a director, author and lecturer. She was previously assistant director at Times Art Center Berlin, the first parallel institution to have been set up overseas by an Asian art museum, namely, the Guangdong Times Museum. Zhu has organised and conceived numerous contemporary art exhibitions, working closely with both established and emerging artists from all over the world.
Zhu is the author of artist book Oriental Silk (Hatje Cantz, 2020) and collection of short stories Encounters (Shanghai Educational Publishing House, 2022). Her essays, prose, interviews, and reviews of her book have appeared in Art Review, e-flux, Kaleidoscope, Asian Review of Books, Crown Magazine, Arts of the Working Class, It’s Nice That, and elsewhere. Zhu has given lectures and talks at London School of Economics and Political Science, Goldsmiths, University of London, Heidelberg University, Lund University, University of Westminster, Rhode Island School of Design, New York University, Syracuse University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, among others. She is listed by Apollo magazine as a 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific Thinker.
Recent
Slavs and Tatars: The Contest of the Fruits
14 June–14 September 2025
esea contemporary is pleased to present The Contest of the Fruits, the first UK institutional solo exhibition by the internationally acclaimed art collective Slavs and Tatars. Running from 14 June to 14 September 2025, the exhibition is an exploration of language, politics, religion, and humour through the lens of a 19th-century Uighur poem, reimagined as a vibrant animated film and rap battle.
“At esea contemporary, we are drawn to the interstices where histories entwine, identities blur,
and meaning resists containment. Since our transformation from the Centre for Chinese
Contemporary Art, we have moved towards a more expansive and relational u nderstanding of
East and Southeast Asian experiences: not through rigid classifications, but through the fluid
dynamics of migratory trajectories, the lingering imprints of colonial legacies, and the
generative possibilities of translational practices.
Slavs and Tatars’ focus on margins—as sites of synthesis, not separation—also feels deeply
resonant in Manchester: a city shaped by migration, industrial legacy, and anti -colonial
struggle. With over 200 languages spoken and a rich literary tradition, Manchester embodies
the very themes that resonate through the work of Slavs a nd Tatars—movement, exchange, and
the complex histories that inform our shared contemporary moment. This ethos manifests
powerfully in The Contest of the Fruits, which invites us to engage with a shifting terrain—one
where opposites blur, categories dissolve, and ritual and rupture coalesce. It is here, in the
gaps between centre and margin, visibility and misinterpretation, that new ways of seeing—and
listening—take root.”
—Xiaowen Zhu, Director, esea contemporary
Shadow and Void: Buddha¹⁰
January 18–April 20, 2025
esea contemporary and MAO (Museum of Asian Art), Turin, are pleased to present ‘Shadow and Void: Buddha10’, an innovative collaboration between the UK’s only non-profit gallery dedicated to East and Southeast Asian contemporary art and one of Europe’s foremost institutional collections of Asian art. Curated by Xiaowen Zhu, Director of esea contemporary, and Davide Quadrio, Director of MAO, this exhibition intertwines scientific studies, contemporary art, and spirituality by showcasing recently restored Buddhist sculptures from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries CE, on loan from MAO, alongside contemporary works by Shigeru Ishihara, Lee Mingwei, LuYang, Sun Xun, Sinta Tantra, Wu Chi-Tsung, and Zheng Bo, including three new commissions created specifically for ‘Buddha10’.
Amplifying Women's Voices: Leadership, Mentorship, and Global-Majority Perspectives in Contemporary Art
16 November 2024, 15:15–16:30
esea contemporary and Manchester Contemporary are pleased to present Amplifying Women's Voices: Leadership, Mentorship, and Global-Majority Perspectives in Contemporary Art, an insightful panel discussion celebrating the vital contributions of women in the contemporary art world at this year's Manchester Contemporary Art Fair.
Chaired by esea contemporary Director Xiaowen Zhu, the event features Petra van den Houten, Director of Development, Marketing, and Communications at Liverpool Biennial; Helena Lee, acting deputy editor of Harper’s Bazaar; artist Sinta Tantra; Rehana Mughal, Director of Creative Economy at the British Council; and Thanh Sinden, Director and Head Coach at Hoa Lotus
From (Counter-)Archives to Activation
May–August 2024, convened by Xiaowen Zhu
While archives embody power, the act of counter-archiving aims to destabilise their projected authority. Who holds the right to speak, to be documented, to exist not solely as statistics but as lived human experiences? What influences, supports, and undermines archival strategies and models within our society? What is the meaning of authenticity, subjectivity, and hegemony in this context? Can oral history facilitate intertextuality and counter-archiving to re-evaluate the narratives entrenched within institutional structures?
Jane Jin Kaisen: Halmang
January 20–April 21, 2024
esea contemporary presents the inaugural UK solo exhibition of internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker Jane Jin Kaisen, featuring polyphonic moving-image works, archive and reference materials. By weaving together oceanic cosmology and gendered histories, the exhibition is an in-depth inquiry into narratives of subjective and collective loss, resilience, and the formation of alternative communities.
In Conversation: Xiaowen Zhu, Davide Quadrio and You Mi on Cross-cultural Curation in & beyond Asia
Read on
Director's Letter
It is with great pleasure that we relaunch esea contemporary, previously known as the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art
Interweaving 交织
A hybrid of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, archive,
and script that explores what silk meant to Asian migrants
Oriental Silk 乡绸
An English-Chinese bilingual book exploring the complex relationship
between people and object in migrants' worlds (also a documentary film)
1/10
Contact
mail@zhuxiaowen.com
You can also find me on Instagram.
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