Xiaorui Huang: Between Ash and Light

Huang’s work in Between Ash and Light focuses on themes including feminism, environmental justice, political resistance, and struggles of marginalized communities in Asian communities in the United States and beyond.

Her paintings combine vigorous brushwork, layered mixed media, and collage with direct engagement with personal and collective stories. Through expressive surfaces and emotionally charged compositions, Huang questions tradition, confronts systems of inequality, and amplifies voices that are often overlooked or silenced.

Huang’s Anger series consists of large-scale mixed-media paintings created in response to the deadly 2022 fire in a predominantly Uyghur neighborhood of Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, which sparked public vigils and protests across China. The series reflects grief, rage, and collective resistance, transforming personal emotional response into visual testimony.

Between Ash and Light is Huang’s first solo exhibition in New York City. She has had previous solo exhibitions at the Gilbert Gallery (Farmington, CT), the Walter & Joan Hobbs Art Gallery (Mineola, NY), Uniondale Public Library (Uniondale, NY), and the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library (Hewlett, NY). Her work has been shown in New York City in group exhibitions at Bowery Gallery, the Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Powerhouse Arts, and the Theatre 1 Breezeway Gallery. Beyond New York, she has exhibited work at the Saatchi Gallery (London), the Holy Art Gallery (London), Las Laguna Art Gallery (Laguna Beach, CA), and the Teravarna Art Gallery (Los Angeles).