Born in Xi’an, China.
As a teenager, she already took a 4 years professional study in painting at the primary art school affiliated to the Xi’an Academy of Fine Art in the 80s.
From 1989-1992, she continued painting and did her BFA at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
In the late 80s, coincidentally she met photography and was immediately drawn into this medium. As a self-taught photographer she was the one of a few artists in late 80s and 90s in China that was exploring the bounderies of photography and using photography as an art form. Through the camera, she observed and challenged the questions on the Chinese society, humanity, female identity and the generation that was born 60s.
In 1998, she went to New York with a grant and fellowship from Asian Cultural Council.
From 1998-2001, she did her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York with the chairman grant from SVA.
This New York period challenged and enriched her artistic experience. In her current art practice she works, besides photography, also in the field of mixed media, video and multi-media installations.
Xing Danwen exhibits domestically and internationally, including Whitney Museum of American Art, Pompidou Center, International center for Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1st Yokohama Triennale and Sydney Biennale 2004, etc. Her works are also collected widely by museums and privates, including Whitney Museum, Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ICP, SF MoMA, Pompidou, FNAC, Victoria and Albert Museum, etc.
Her artistic practice is both rich and varied and her subjects include: Dislocation between cultural status, conflicts between globalization and traditions, problematic environmental issues created by the developemnt, the urban drama between the desire and reality. Fiction, truth and illusion often play an important role in her works.
She currently lives and works in Beijing.
