Echo Xu was born in Chengdu, China, and earned her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2025, where she received the Florence Leif Award. She completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Having spent 18 years in China before moving to the U.S., her practice reflects the insecurity and dislocation of transient belonging. Deeply shaped by environment and community, Echo explores shifting access to resources—often defined by class, race, and gender—through painting, sculpture, and performance. Her work examines audience dynamics, navigating the urge to fit in while playfully subverting social norms and power structures.
Curated Show
2025It’s Time to Tell You That We are Vampires, Memorial Hall Gallery, Providence, RI
2024Drinking from a Poison Chalice, Memorial Hall Gallery, Providence, RI
Group Show
2025 Liz Collins:Motherlode, RISD Museum, Providence, RI
2025 This Must Be the Place, Bowen Suite Gallery, Providence, RI
2025 Painting Senior Show, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI
2025 Reframing Representation, Center for Integrative Technology, Providence, RI
2024 Container, A Space Gallery, New York, NY
2024 Third Biennial College Exhibition, Maxwell Mays Gallery, Providence, RI
2024 Major Survey Show, Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI
2024 Chip Witch Collab Show, Memorial Hall, Providence, RI
2024 Painting Junior Show, Memorial Hall, Providence, RI
2023 The second Essere Visione Art Exhibition, online
2022 Threads of Sustainability, Industrial Design Gallery, Providence, RI
2021 Stan Academia, Adidas Originals, Shanghai, China
2021 One Day One Book, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Public Performance
2025 Potatoes of August, Brown Leeds Theater, RI
2024 Cook Pot Check, 20 Washington Place, RI
2024 Sailboat Lullaby, Brown Leeds Theater, RI
2020 Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, A4 Art Museum, Chengdu, China
Awards and Publication
2025 Florence Leif Awards, RISD Scholarship
2021-25 Rhode Island School of Design Honor Student
2024 Visual artist, Visions Magazine Fall release, RI
2024 Visual artist, Visions Magazine Spring release, RI
2024 Global Talent Art Prize, 2nd winner
2024 Artist Interview, Cucumber Magazine
2023 Visual artist, Visions Magazine Fall release, RI