Born in Beijing in 2007, Junyi Chen—known by the alias Xiaogui 小鬼 (Mischievous Child/Brat)—is a professional skateboarder and multidisciplinary artist whose practice defies conventional boundaries. Whether through graffiti, sculpture, or found-object assemblage, Xiaogui approaches art with an intuitive urgency, crafting a visual language rooted in rawness, motion, and lived experience.

小鬼 Junyi Chen. Photo courtesy: the artist.

*With My Homie*, 2025, clay and mixed media. Photo courtesy: the artist.

Xiaogui began making art at the age of 14, doodling with crayons during Math and Chinese classes—moments of rebellion that often landed him outside the classroom doors. Xiaogui eventually left school at a young age and the street life has enriched his artistic practice. Over time, this instinct to create evolved into a practice unrestrained by medium or form. Today, his works are born from flashes of inspiration and built from the fragments of his everyday life.

Detailed *With My Homie*, 2025, mixed media. Photo courtesy: the artist.

Take, for instance, his recent collection of dolls within the series With My Homie: haunting, tactile figures inspired by the aesthetics of stop-motion animation. Originally intending to use oil-based clay, Xiaogui quickly realized its fragility and turned instead to materials that bore personal resonance. Skin-tone bandages from skating injuries, twisted copper wire, tufts of wool, and shreds of torn clothing—these remnants of movement and misadventure became the building blocks of his sculptures.

“The hands are made of bandages. The head is covered in wool, and the clothes are torn pieces I had from skating.”

Each figure becomes a portrait of Xiaogui’s lived encounters—objects transformed into memory, memory into form. The materiality, the low-tech quality, all informative of Xiaogui’s audacious personal artistic style.

Detailed *With My Homie*, 2025, clay and mixed media. Photo courtesy: the artist.

Xiaogui has been skateboarding since 2018. Now seven years in, skateboarding has become more than a sport; it’s the backbone of his artistic and personal trajectory. “Skating is why I left school,” he says, with a grin that doesn’t conceal the complexity behind the statement. At first, it was about freedom—riding through the city with friends, drinking, going to clubs, and living fully in the moment. The thrill of the streets offered something no classroom could.

But over time, skateboarding became a discipline, a craft, a calling. With sponsorships from brands like Lovespot and Adidas, Xiaogui found himself stepping into a new rhythm—one shaped less by recklessness and more by commitment and creativity.

“At first, it was just about landing tricks I already knew. But now, I love the feel of the skateboard under my feet and the process of learning something new—failing, trying again, and finally nailing it.”

While Beijing is often considered a center of underground youth and skate culture in China, Xiaogui’s relationship to the city remains ambivalent. It’s home, but not a dream.

“Beijing is just where I’m from—it’s not where I’m going.”

Creatively, Xiaogui operates on instinct. He doesn’t follow a fixed process. Instead, he waits for what he calls “a spark”—a moment when an idea hits with enough force to demand expression. Right now, that spark is leading him toward an ambitious new project: his first solo skate part, a filmic reflection on his seven-year journey as a skater. It’s a work in progress—something that may take a year or more to complete—but for Xiaogui, time isn’t a pressure point. It’s part of the process.

“So I just have to wait for that spark.”

Now 18, Xiaogui stands at the edge of something larger. His work channels the feral energy of adolescence, the rhythm of the street, and the wisdom that only comes from falling hard and getting up again. His presence is magnetic. His potential, immense.

To encounter Xiaogui is to meet someone radically alive—someone whose life and art are inseparable, stitched together from sweat, risk, joy, and scraps.

The art world may not have been ready for someone like Xiaogui before: young, audacious, unconventional. But it has to be now because Xiaogui is constantly coming up with fresh creative ideas and he is unstoppable.

Connect with Xiaogui on Instagram: @xiaogui.guiguigui

Sherry Wu (Yongyi)

Emerging Artist Co-Editor, MADE IN BED

Xiaogui

Rebecca Wu

HOME