Chinese migrant to Los Angeles found contemporary art scene lacking so she opened her own gallery to show Asian artists’ work, and she’s not alone

Lu Yiwei found LA starved of contemporary art when she arrived from Shanghai in 2014, and has opened Yiwei Gallery to champion Asian artists, especially women

May Xue worked at UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing and the K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong before founding Horizon to show underserved artists’ work

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“Natural Women”, a recent exhibition in Los Angeles of the work of four female artists, was curated by gallery founder Lu Yiwei, one of two women from China to open art spaces in the city recently. Photo: Yiwei Gallery

Published: 7:45am, 1 Feb 2022Updated: 9:52am, 1 Feb 2022

The final touches have just been put to Horizon, a newly opened workspace for artists in downtown Los Angeles, California.

“It was the only thing we needed,” says May Xue of the 4,800 sq ft (450 square metre) space, which will host its first artist-in-residence in February. “We were looking everywhere for something like this, something with high ceilings and light, where artists could create. This is perfect for that.”

Xue would know – the China-born chief executive director and co-founder of Horizon ran similar programmes for the Hong Kong-based K11 Art Foundation (KAF), where she was the director of education and institutional relations.

Before joining KAF in 2017, she was chief executive of UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing, a not-for-profit art museum.

May Xue is the chief executive director of Horizon in Los Angeles. Photo: Horizon Art Foundation

Xue worked in Los Angeles as a private events organiser for three years in the early 2000s, before returning to China. Now, with Horizon, she is returning to a city she loves and to what she loves doing – discovering emerging artists, giving them a place to explore their creativity and hosting community events.

Another Chinese woman has, also at the same time, set up a new art platform across town.