Jian Jun Xi (JJ Xi) (b.1962 in China) is a renowned artist who lives and works in London and Beijing. He studied at the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and later completed an MA at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1995.

Xi is known for his multidisciplinary approach to art, exploring complex ideals and concepts through verious media including performance, installation, sculpture and painting, that explore themes of power cultural discourse, and the individual’s place within systems. His work frequently engages with the symbolic structures and historical narratives of contemporary art.

In collaboration with the artist Cai Yuan under the name Mad For Real, they have produced a number of widely discussed controversial intervention such as jumping on Tracey Emin’s My Bed in 1999 and urinating on Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain at Tate Britain in 2000. His installation work Empire (2013) references the iconic architecture and symbolic power associated with Capitol Hill.

Xi is recognised as part of a generation of Chinese artists who established their practices in the wake of the cultural transformations of the late twentieth century. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the V&A Museum (2015); the Ashmolean Museum (2013); UCCA, Beijing (2013); Tate Modern (2012); ZKM, Germany (2011); the Louisiana Museum, Denmark (2007); the British Museum (2004); and the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester (2004). His most recent exhibition, A Blueprint of Ruins is at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney (2025–26). He has also participated in numerous international biennales, including those in Venice, Liverpool, Thessaloniki, Prague, Chengdu, and Shanghai. His work is represented in both public institutions and private collections. JJ Xi received the Jackson Pollock Art Prize in 2006, the Most Influential Artist Award from Phoenix Art in 2015, and the Public Choice Award at NordArt in Germany in 2019.