Xu has worked across video, photography, performance, painting, sculpture, installation and curation. He won the China Contemporary Art Award in 2004 and participated in the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. In 2009 Xu established MadeIn Company, a contemporary art corporation focused on creative production and devoted to ‘the research of contemporary culture’s infinite possibilities’. In 2013, MadeIn Company launched the brand Xu Zhen.