About
XVX Art Space was founded by a group of UK based artists from China who have made the United Kingdom their home since the 1980s. Having lived and worked within British cultural life for several decades, they represent a generation shaped by migration, translation, and cultural integration. Their practices continue to move between the artistic contexts of both cultures.
Established in 2025, XVX is a contemporary art platform developed through collaboration between artists, curators, collectors, and cultural professionals internationally. The organisation operates from its permanent exhibition space at 72 Compton Street, London EC1V 0BN, a Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse built in 1796 and located within the Clerkenwell Green Conservation Area—an area historically associated with London’s mercantile, craft, and intellectual life.
XVX functions both visually and conceptually. X marks a point of crossing—an encounter, collision, and exchange. V suggests emergence and openness. X—V—X forms a symmetrical structure: crossing, emergence, and crossing again. The name reflects the organisation’s commitment to dialogue across histories, geographies, and artistic languages.
Artist Jian Jun Xi (JJ Xi) has long engaged with historical architecture as a site of cultural memory. At XVX, a structure carrying more than two centuries of London’s urban history becomes a setting for contemporary artistic discourse. The building has been carefully restored to preserve its architectural character while supporting a forward-looking exhibition and research programme. This approach reflects broader heritage principles articulated by Historic England: respecting historical integrity while allowing living culture to evolve within historic structures.
Within the walls of a house built in 1796, the organisation stages artistic conversations that address the urgencies of the present. Its programme focuses on artists whose practices engage with memory, displacement, authorship, and the material histories of art. Particular attention is given to forms of cultural production that remain outside dominant narratives: unfinished plans, rejected proposals, concealed traces, private letters and photographs, and actions performed without an audience. Through exhibitions, research, and public programmes, XVX seeks to recontextualise cultural narratives within historic urban environments—concerns that are deeply connected to the founders’ own trajectories.
Contact
Email: hello@x-v-x.co.uk
Instagram: @XVX
Facebook: XVX
Redbook (Xiaohongshu): XVX
VISIT
72 Compton Street, London EC1V 0BN
Opening Hours:
Thursday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm
Or by appointment.