XIAOWU ZHENG (b. 1998, Changsha, Hunan Province, China)

 

is an fashion designer and fashion curator who currently lives and works in New York. He studied Photography at VIAR Summer Program Columbia University, New York in 2017 and he earned his B.F.A. in Fashion Design Program and minor in Film/Video Program from Pratt Institute in 2020. His works have been exhibited in United States, including NYFW Runway, Spring Studio, Manhattan, New York (2021); Reduce the Back Log, Latitude Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (2021), Art Teleported, Brooklyn, New York (2020); Man in the Corner Solo Exhibition, Mu Project, Manhattan, New York (2019); ‘47 Redesign，‘47 Flagship Store, Boston, MA (2018) and Summer Photo Intensive Exhibition, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York (2017). His curation includes You are the Lab Rat, Chelsea, New York (2023); We Are Fashion Exhibition, Culture Lab LIC, Long Island City, New York (2022)

 

Zheng’s work uses clothing as a form of medium and outlet to illustrate the floating thoughts and dark emotions of his depression. Instead of shy away from those disturbing topics, he takes inspirations from the dark side of humanity and creates a utopia of chaos and violence. Zheng has been exploring and challenging the concept of morality, from thenoisy moody stream of consciousness to the search of violence, mystery, horror and sex. Besides from clothing which is his specialty, Zheng collaborates with other artists to expand his work into different types of medium such as 3D modeling, installation, jewelry, film and photography.