UCCA’s first exhibition of 2024—“Dream Time” will be open to the public from January 27 to April 28, 2024. A group show featuring fifteen artists and collectives from around the world, “Dream Time” explores the complexity of dreams—both as reveries and aspirations—with themes of will, hope, memory, and imagination. Turning UCCA’s Central, New and West Galleries into a dreamscape, the exhibition aims to evoke sensory and intellectual channels, thereby leading viewers to rethink their contemporary lives.

From January 27 to April 28, 2024, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art is proud to present its first exhibition of the year, “Dream Time,” a group show where fifteen artists and art collectives investigate the complex meanings of dreams—both as reveries and aspirations—in works that span media including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance. Dreams are extremely private, depicting an individual’s inner world, arousing their secret desires and fears, connecting them to the past and future, and reinforcing their identity with the self and the collective. Modern technology seems to have intruded that private space. People become constantly interrupted by the infinite fragmented information accessible at their fingertips, and deprived of the time to think about more essential topics—gender and cultural identity, environmental sustainability, subjective perception, intimate relationships, evolution of technology, personal and collective memories, to name a few. In this exhibition, the artists and collectives bring these topics back into focus, presenting thoughts, stories, and perspectives based on their diverse personal and cultural backgrounds. With their works, “Dream Time” transforms the Central, New and West Galleries at UCCA Beijing into a dreamscape steeped in psychological and socio-historical fiction, opening multiple sensory and intellectual channels of the audience, embedding reconsolidated memories and reconstructed future images from their inner worlds into the dreams of the collective, leading them to rethink their contemporary lives. Participating artists include Aslı Çavuşoğlu (b. 1982, Istanbul) & İnci Eviner (b. 1956, Ankara), Doreen Chan (B. 1987, Hong Kong), Aleksandra Domanović (b. 1981, Novi Sad), Feng Zhixuan (b. 1993, Wenzhou), Tirdad Hashemi (b. 1991, Tehran) & Soufia Erfanian (b. 1990, Mashhad), Sky Hopinka (b. 1984, Ferndale), Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, Orange County), Ma Qiusha (b. 1982, Beijing), Itziar Okariz (b. 1965, Spain), Peng Zuqiang (b. 1992, Changsha), Sin Wai Kin (b. 1991, Toronto), Chin Tsao (b. 1989, Taipei), Evelyn Taocheng Wang (b. 1981, Chengdu), Yuyan Wang (b. 1989, Shandong), and Guanyu Xu (b. 1993, Beijing). This exhibition is curated by UCCA curator Yan Fang.

The first artwork that visitors will encounter while entering the exhibition through the West Gallery is a newly commissioned mural Unfortunately, We Cannot. (2024). Christine Sun Kim created a site-specific mural work using her signature artistic language. She attempts to construct a place of encounter inspired by dreams and trauma expressed in American Sign Language (ASL), compelling the visitors to consider different modes of perception. The work further challenges the presiding narratives of art history, which are dominated by spoken language. Next, they will come to Doreen Chan’s HalfDream (2021 – now), through which the artist connects people from different backgrounds and identities via an online platform for dream sharing. Specially for this exhibition, she designed a new interactive structure where visitors can lie back in semi-public space, browse or listen to the dreams of others, and upload their own dreams to see if there is a match.

Moving on to the New Gallery, four bodies of work unfold stories from different corners of the world. Itziar Okariz leads visitors into a realm of subjectivity via Las Estatuas / The Statues (2019), a collection of her murmured dialogues with statues and other pieces in different national and regional museums. Through these dialogues, it is as if she has established her own intimate and exclusive relationships with the artworks. She will also perform Diary of Dreams (2015 – 2016) during the exhibition and share her recent dreams to the audience with a play of words. Sky Hopinka’s Lore (2019) pays homage to Hollis Frampton's experimental film from the 1970s. By combining images, collage, and poetry created by the artist, the work tells a story that weaves together history and emotion. Tirdad Hashemi and Soufia Erfanian jointly created a new series of paintings that expresses their love, polyamory, and intimacy. In the works, each flower becomes a unique lover, whispering its own story and carrying its own beauty—a commemoration for their loved ones. In addition, inspired by his own experiences, Guanyu Xu documents the lives of migrants with Resident Aliens (2021 – now), depicting their struggles and insecurities even at home, questioning the definition of citizenship and uncertainty.

Finally, the Central Gallery presents a space where traditional and modern energies intertwine. Aslı Çavuşoğlu and İnci Eviner jointly created Genies of Water (2023) with the hope to restore vitality to a heavily polluted river in Turkey. By painting with a symbolic amount of that river water as ink, the artists made silkscreen prints to redraw images of underwater creatures eradicated by pollution, incorporating elements extracted from urban culture and local mythologies. Feng Zhixuan juxtaposes technology, mythology and commerce from ancient times and the distant future through the sculpture Starwishenge (2023), made with resin robotic arms from industrial waste, ancient coins, and biomaterials. Chin Tsao presents an anachronistic setting with her ceramics to explore how the East meets the West, the past influences the future, and identities evolve with globalization. Evelyn Taocheng Wang draws on quotes full of stereotypes in the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence, and offers contemporary perspectives on these topics in her “False Posters” series. Her creative transformation and appropriation of language and context are both humorous and poetic, liberating the traditional medium of ink art and calligraphy from simple imitations or repetitions.

Also in the Central Gallery, Aleksandra Domanović invites visitors to reconsider the relationship between humans, technology, history, and the roles that women have played in these dynamics with a series of sculptures inspired by the Belgrade Hand—the world’s first artificial hand with five fingers and sensory feedback. Ma Qiusha’s latest work Flowers in the Mirror (2023 – 2024) puts antiquities and replicas acquired from around the world in a movable display window, relating to her childhood memories and her own identity, both real and imagined, opening a pathway to the past. In Peng Zuqiang’s most recent video installation, Autocorrects (2023), the artist invokes thinking on amnesia and it’s affects through lyrics lazer-engraved into 16mm film, with a musical composition inspired by the trope of downtempo genre from early 1990s Mando-pop music. Collaging a wide range of found footage, Wang Yuyan’s newest filmic installation The Sleeping World Turns Around (2023) depicts an artificial lighting infrastructure in a fictive world, hoping to capture a cross-section of our age of obsession with visibility and efficiency, as well as the afflictions of our desire for boundless sight and illumination.

The exhibition ends with Sin Wai Kin’s It’s Always You (2021), in which the artist reuses four masculine drag roles from previous works, each representing a different projection of their self-image. They form a boy band, each with a designated role as an individual while having an identity that only functions as part of the larger group dynamic. In a post-globalized world, how can we stay connected while maintaining our individuality and self-identity, and how can we keep dreaming about the future while living in an increasingly challenging present? We may never reach a conclusive answer, but we can at least start with the possibilities presented in “Dream Time.”

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Public Programs

UCCA Public Practice team has planned a series of public programs to celebrate the opening of the exhibition during the first weekend. On the afternoon of January 27 (Saturday), participating artist Doreen Chan is invited to host a special workshop, in which she will guide the participants to reconstruct their dreams using clay, and attach their creations to the artist’s installation. Together, the artist and the participants construct a scenery of dreams. On the afternoon of January 28 (Sunday), another participating artist Itziar Okariz will present an experimental lecture, leading the audience to embed reconsolidated memories and reconstructed future images from the inner worlds of themselves into the dreams of the collective, and hence rethink their contemporary lives. For the most up-to-date information on events, please refer to UCCA’s official website and social media platforms.

 Aslı Çavuşoğlu (b. 1982, Istanbul) examines the way in which cultural and historical facts are transformed, represented, and interpreted by individuals. Working across various media, Çavuşoğlu often assumes the role of an interpreter, writer, or facilitator in her projects in order to highlight the precarious and subjective nature of our shared histories.

 Her recent solo shows include “TunState” (Associazione Barriera, Turin, 2022); “Pink as a Cabbage / Green as an Onion / Blue as an Orange” (EK BİÇ YE İÇ, Istanbul, 2021; Kadist, Paris, 2020); “With Just the Push of a Voice” (MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, USA, 2020); “The Place of Stone” (New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2018); “Red/Red” (Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar, 2016); “In Diverse Estimations Little Moscow” (RISD Museum, Providence, RI, USA, 2014); “The Stones Talk” (Arter, Istanbul, 2013); and “Murder in Three Acts” (Delfina Foundation, London, 2013). She has participated in group exhibitions and biennials at the following institutions: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Qinhuangdao, 2023); Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2020); Castello di Rivoli (Turin, 2019 & 2017); Moderna Museet (Stockholm, 2017); Manifesta 11 (Zurich, 2016); the 14th Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, 2015); New Museum Triennial (New York, 2015); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam, 2014); MAK Museum (Vienna, 2013); and Performa 11 (New York, 2011). Her works are included in international collections, such as Arter (Istanbul), British Museum (London), Castello di Rivoli (Turin), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Qatar), Museum of Modern Art (New York), and Kadist (Paris / San Francisco).

İnci Eviner 

Inci Eviner (b. 1956, Ankara, currently lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey) pursued a PhD in the Fine Arts Faculty of Mimar Sinan University (1992) after graduating from the Painting Department of the National Academy of Fine Arts. She received prizes from the Sharjah Art Biennial in 2017 (13 Prize), and was also invited to artist residencies such as Rauschenberg Foundation in Florida, ISPC in New York USA, and SAM Art Projects in Paris throughout her career. 

Eviner’s most important exhibitions are the Venice Biennial Turkish Pavillion (Venice, 2019) and her retrospective “Who’s Inside You?” (Istanbul Modern Museum, Istanbul, 2016). She has held important solo exhibitions such as “Houris and Travelers” (Dirimart, Istanbul, 2022); “Beneath the Horizon” (Galeri Nev, Istanbul, 2017); “Runaway Girls” (The Drawing Center, New York, 2015); “Broken Manifestos” (Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2011); and “Harem” (Art in the Auditorium in Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2009). Eviner has also attended a number of biennials worldwide including the Liverpool Biennial (2018), Gwangju Biennial (2018) and the 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013).

Doreen Chan

Doreen Chan (b. 1987, Hong Kong, currently lives in New York) is a mixed-media artist focusing on social practices. She was trained in visual communication and photography before receiving her MA in Art Education from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2021). In her work, Chan re-examines the tensions between interpersonal relationships and subject formation. Through collecting, selecting, and reorganizing fragments from everyday life, she explores how individuals interact with collective and personal memories. She works site-specifically on installations, public programs, virtual projects, and collaborates with a wide range of individuals using images, sculptures, objects, sounds, and performance. 

Chan has exhibited at institutions such as Ars Electronica Festival 2022 (Linz), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), Times Museum (Guangzhou), Art Omi (New York), and Para Site (Hong Kong). In 2023, her commissioned project, Sipping Dreams, inaugurated Tai Kwun Contemporary’s V Hall. In the same year, she was listed as ArtReview China’s “Future Greats.” In 2021, she was an Eyebeam fellow and finalist for the 4th VH Award of Hyundai Motor Group. She was also selected as Cultured Magazine’s “Young Artists” (2021).

Aleksandra Domanović

Aleksandra Domanović (b. 1981, Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia, currently lives and works in Berlin) is an artist and filmmaker. Throughout her career, she has been exploring the relations between technology, history and identity through sculptures, videos, prints and digital artworks. The artist employs an autobiographical approach, often reflecting on the complex history of her native Yugoslavia. She has an upcoming major solo exhibition in Kunsthalle Vienna (2024). Her recent solo exhibitions have been held at Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Milan, 2019); MoCA (Cleveland, 2018); Bundeskunsthalle (Bonn, 2017); and Henry Moore Institute (Leeds, 2017).

Feng Zhixuan

 Feng Zhixuan (b. 1993, Wenzhou, Zhejiang) graduated from the Public Art Department of China Academy of Art (2015) and then from the Sculpture Department of the Royal College of Art, UK (2018). Feng’s works are constantly inspired by his diverse life and artistic experiences. Through non-fictional material layers, he evokes cultural resonance and utilizes hidden materials within everyday textures for historical construction. Cultural elements emerge from highly personalized material forms, shifting between historical and improvisational narratives, creating universal values that transcend specific times and places. His sculptural installations consistently exhibit a tension, dynamically integrating elements of mythology, technology, ecology, and cosmic imagination. For him, materials act as a cultural adhesive and a result of resistance. Each of his pieces is imbued with traces of "resistance" against the contemporary urban environment and dehumanized production. Throughout the nomadic process of creation and exhibition, he continually establishes a vertical experiential structure, nurturing a human-centric ecological imagination amidst the ruins of industrial wastelands.

Feng’s recent solo and group exhibitions include: “The One” (Madein Gallery, Shanghai, 2023); “Demonstration: The Art of Decision-Making Techniques” (Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, 2023); “Unknown Pleasures” (Soul Art Center, Beijing, 2023); “We Borrow Dreams From Others, Like Debt” (Madein Museum, Shanghai, 2022); “RanRan – Songs of the Return” (UCCA Edge, Shanghai, 2022); “Diving Deep for Light into Darkness” (Beiqiu Museum of Contemporary Art, Nanjing, China, 2022); “Spring Rhapsody” (KWM Art Center, Beijing, 2022); “USB” (Madein Gallery, Gallery func, Qiao Space, and in the PARK, Shanghai, China, 2021); “Heavy Snow and Monstrous Winds” (Auto, Switzerland, 2021); “Hereditary Territory” (Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, 2021); “Home-coming Islet: Those Visible and Invisible” (Yuan Art Museum, Chongqing, China, 2021); “Illusive Particles” (Madein Gallery, Shanghai, 2020); “A truck is parked in the grass near a tree in doubt” (Erlangen Confucius Institute Art Space, Nuremberg, Germany, 2020); “Pull Up The Stake” (Qimu Space, Beijing, 2019); and “Global Living Room” (de Pot, Shanghai, 2019).

Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian

Tirdad Hashemi

Tirdad Hashemi (b. 1991, Tehran, lives and works between Paris, Tehran, and Berlin) is an Iranian-born émigré artists living in Europe, who primarily works with painting. Whether on paper or canvas, often in small formats and depending on the means at hand, people agitate, congregate and break out. Sometimes they seem to free themselves from all constraints and conventions, and sometimes they suffocate on our rules of decorum, finally vomiting all over our well-meaning societies. In Hashemi’s own words, the artist may not be “an activist that dwells in the streets, but an activist with the lifestyle [they have] chosen.” Art is their only necessity, their true home. The only place where they can express fully. The only place where they can be both themselves and others. Because in this space, everything is still possible.

Hashemi’s recent solo exhibitions include “Tirdad Hashemi: The Trapped Lullabies” (GB Agency, Paris, 2023); “ONLINE: Tirdad Hashemi” (GB Agency, Paris, 2022); and “Breeze 5: Tirdad Hashemi: Wet Plastic Fragile Heart” (GB Agency, Paris, 2021). Their group exhibitions include “40 years of the Frac! Gunaikeîon” (Les Réserves, Romainville, France, 2023); “The Scorpion Snuff Box: A Visual Journey into a Queer Novel” (Maria Theresia Bastilion, Timișoara, Romania, 2023); “De leur temps” (Frac Grand Large - Hauts-de-France, Dunkerque, France, 2023); “La Fugitive” (Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry - Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2022); “A fleur de peau” (Centre d’art contemporain, Brest, France, 2022); “Des corps, des écritures” (Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, 2022); and “Dans la tiédeur de la nuit” (Marcelle Alix, Paris, 2021). Their works were also presented at art fairs such as Paris+ by Art Basel 2023 & 2022 (Basel, Swiss, 2023 & 2022); Art Paris 2023 & 2022 (Paris, 2023 &2022); and FIAC 2021 (Paris, 2021).

Soufia Erfanian

Soufia Erfanian (b. 1990, Mashhad, Iran, currently lives in Berlin) studied Architecture at Azad University in Mashhad and later pursued Mechanical Engineering at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. Since immigrating to Germany ten years ago, she has been constantly on the move, living in different cities and numerous apartments. This perpetual change has shaped her understanding of the concept of “home,” leading her to explore its significance through her art. It was in art that she found her true calling, using it as a means of survival and expression beyond the confines of time, place, and societal expectations.

At the core of Erfanian's art lies a deep yearning for human connection. Her paintings are a reflection of the stories, emotions, and struggles of people, capturing their joys, sorrows, passions, and deepest thoughts. In her works, she distills these experiences, stripping away unnecessary details to reveal the essence of human emotions. Through her art, Soufia Erfanian strives to forge connections with others, communicating their sentiments and unraveling the intricate facets of human existence. Her work serves as a profound medium for storytelling and an embodiment of the esoteric link between art and the depths of human emotions. In the dynamic and ever-changing world that she navigates, Erfanian's art continues to resonate, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences of home, belonging, and shared humanity.

Sky Hopinka

Sky Hopinka (b. 1984, Ferndale, Washington; Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) spent a number of years in Palm Springs and Riverside, California, Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Portland he studied and taught Chinuk Wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work center around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape, as well as designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal, documentary, and non-fiction forms of media.

His work has played at various festivals including “Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival” (Ann Arbor); “Courtisane Festival” (Punto de Vista); and the "New York Film Festival.” His work was a part of biennials such as: Whitney Biennial (2017); FRONT Triennial (2018); and Prospect.5 (2021). He was a guest curator at the 2019 Whitney Biennial and participated in Cosmopolis #2 at the Centre Pompidou. His solo exhibitions have been held at Center for Curatorial Studies (Bard College, 2020) and LUMA (Arles, France, 2022). He is the recipient of the “Infinity Award in Art” from the International Center and the “Alpert Award for Film/Video.” He has also been awarded the following fellowships: The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Harvard University, 2018-2019), Sundance Art of Nonfiction (2019), Art Matters (2019), The Guggenheim Foundation (2020), and The Forge Project (2021). In the fall of 2022, Hopinka received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work as a visual artist and filmmaker.

Christine Sun Kim

Christine Sun Kim (b. 1980, Orange County, CA, lives and works in Berlin) considers how sound operates in society, deconstructing the politics of sound and exploring how oral languages serve as a social currency. Musical notation, written language, infographics, American Sign Language (ASL), the use of the body, and strategically deployed humor are all recurring elements in her works. Through drawing, performance, video and large-scale murals, Kim explores her relationship with spoken and signed languages, her built and social environments, and the world at large.

Kim has exhibited and performed internationally, such as at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); Secession (Vienna, 2023); Queens Museum (New York, 2022); the Drawing Center (New York, 2022); the Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt, 2021); Manchester International Festival (2021); MIT List Visual Arts Center (Cambridge, 2020); Whitney Biennial (New York, 2019); Buffalo AKG Art Museum (2019); Art Institute of Chicago (2018); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); De Appel Arts Center (Amsterdam, 2017); Berlin Biennale (2016); Shanghai Biennale (2016); MoMA PS1 (New York, 2015); and the Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2013). Her awards and fellowships include an MIT Media Lab Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Ford and Mellon Foundations’ Disabilities Future Fellowship, and the Prix International d’Art Contemporain of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. Her works are held in numerous prominent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), LACMA, Tate Britain, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, etc. She is represented by François Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles and White Space in Beijing.

Ma Qiusha

Ma Qiusha (b. 1982, currently lives and works in Beijing) received her BA in Digital Media Art from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China (2005) and MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from Alfred University, New York (2008). Her solo exhibitions have been held at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (UK, 2018); OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Xi’an (China, 2018); Beijing Commune (2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009); Chinese Arts Centre, (Manchester, 2013); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2011); and Taikang Space (Beijing, 2010, 2007). Her work has been featured in major group exhibitions at institutions worldwide, such as Daimler Contemporary (Berlin); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong); Smart Museum of Art (Chicago); A4 Art Museum, (Chengdu, China); Power Station of Art (Shanghai); Beijing Minsheng Art Museum (Beijing); chi K11 Art Museum (Shanghai); Para Site (Hong Kong); Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris); Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Karlsruhe); Tate Modern Museum (London); Orange County Museum of Art (US); Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul); Tampa Museum of Art (Tampa, US); Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, US); International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York); Groninger Museum (Groningen, the Netherlands); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (US); Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum (Beijing); National Art Museum of China (Beijing); International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York); International Contemporary Art Foundation (Bergen); Stavanger Art Museum (Norway) and more. She was nominated for the Pierre Huber Prize (2014) and “Young Artist of the Year” by Award of Art China (AAC) in 2017 and 2013.

Itziar Okariz

Itziar Okariz (b. 1965, Spain, lives and works in New York and San Sebastian) is an artist that works within the framework of action and performance, questioning the ways of regulating language and the production of signs that define us. Her work—vocal performances, instant acts, videos, installations and text pieces—examines the ties between architecture, territory, body, ritual, sexuality, and semiotics, and is often associated with feminist practices, punk-rock and the queer critique of normative gender constructs. In recent years, her practice has been linked to the forms of transmission and pedagogies of art in collaboration with other artists.

Her recent projects include: “Ulultronica: A Sonic Survey Exhibition” (Hunsand Center for Contemporary Art, Shijiazhuang, 2023); “Processi 150” (Real Academia of Spain, Rome, 2023; “XXIII Bienal de arte Paiz” (Guatemala City,2023) ; “Out of residency at Curva Pura” (Roma, 2023); “Oralités” (Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris, 2023); “Waves” (Casa Solleric, Palma de Mallorca; Oceanica, 2022); “Chapter2 VW, Playbill” (Torpedo Theater, Amsterdam, 2022); “Rodeo” (Musac, Leon, 2022); “Unquiet Objects” (Disjecta, Portland, 2022); “Moving Words. Rimi Scenekunst” (Stavanger, Norway, 2021); “The 13th Shanghai Biennale” (Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2021); “Ocean Breath” (The Night of Ideas MNCARS, Madrid, 2021); “The Statues” (Fundacion Oteiza, Alzuza, 2020); “Perforated by” (Spanish pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale, together with Sergio Prego, 2019); “I Never Said Umbrella” (Tabakalera, San Sebastián, 2018); “A construction…” (CA2M, Madrid, 2018); “Itziar Okariz” (Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, 2017); and “Ideorritmias” (MACBA, Barcelona, 2017).

Peng Zuqiang

Peng Zuqiang (b. 1992, Changsha, currently lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands) graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London (2014) and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017). He makes films, videos and installations, with an attention to the affective meaning within history, the body, and language.

Peng has received fellowships and residencies from Rijksakademie (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Fall 2022 – ongoing); IAS CEU (Budapest, Hungary, 2022); Organhaus (Chongqing, China, 2021); Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (Maine, US, 2019); The Core Program (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US, 2017-2019). He was awarded the Illy Present Future prize (2022), and a “Special Mentions” at the Festival Film Dokumenter in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with his first feature film, Nan (2020).

Peng Zuqiang’s recent solo exhibitions and screenings have been held at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, Italy, upcoming); “Vestiges” (Kevin Space, Vienna, Austria, 2023); “Souvenirs of Friction” (E-Flux screening room, New York, 2022); “Sideways Looking” (Cell Project Space, London, 2022); “Peng Zuqiang: Hesitations” (Antenna Space (ANTENNA-TENNA project, venue supported by Objective Gallery), Shanghai, 2021). His works are also selected for screenings and group exhibitions including “22nd Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil: Memory is an Editing Station” (Sesc 24 de Maio, São Paulo, BR, 2023); “Horizons: Is there anybody out there?” (Antenna Space, Shanghai, 2023); “The Difficult Art of Taking a Walk” (CCA Berlin, DE, 2023); European Media Art Festival (EMAF 36) (Osnabrück, DE, 2023); “Double Feature” (Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, DE, 2022); “Oceans of Time” (Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles, 2022); “25FPS” (Zagreb, HR, 2022); “Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (Kassel Dokfest)” (Germany, 2022); “2022 OCAT × KADIST Emerging Media Artist Program: In Solidarity with__” (OCAT, Shanghai, 2022); “The Elephant Escaped” (Macalline Art Center, Beijing, 2022); “One song is very much like another, and the boat is always from afar” (Times Museum, Guangzhou, CN, 2021); “‘NEUTRON’ mid-length program” (Beijing International Short Film Festival, CN, 2021); “Más alláel mar canta” (Times Art Center Berlin, DE, 2021); “A Long Hello” (UCCA Beijing, China, 2020); “IDFA - First Appearance section” (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2020); “Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD)” (Yogyakarta, IN, 2020); and the “Borders | No Borders program” (Houston Cinema Arts Festival, US, 2020).

Sin Wai Kin

Sin Wai Kin (b. 1991, Toronto, currently lives and works in London) is an artist using speculative fiction within performance, moving image, writing, and print to interrupt normative processes of desire, identification, and objectification. Sin uses drag as a practice of purposeful embodiment, questioning the reification and ascription of ideal images within technologies of representation and systems of looking. Drawing from close personal encounters of looking and wanting, their work presents heavily constructed fantasy narratives on the often-unsettling experience of the physical within the social body.

Sin was shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2022. They currently have a solo exhibition at Fondazione Memmo, featuring their latest video work Dreaming the End (Rome, 2023). Sin’s performances and works have been shown at international institutions and events including Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (Geneva, 2023); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong, 2022); Para Site (Hong Kong, 2022); Channel, Somerset House (London, 2022); ICA (Los Angeles, 2022); The Guggenheim (New York, 2022); The British Museum (London, 2022); Shedhalle (Zurich, 2021); “British Art Show 9” (2021); ICA (London, 2020); Tank Museum (Shanghai, 2020); MOCA (Toronto, 2019); “MOMENTA biennale de l'image” (Montreal, 2019); Hayward Gallery (London, 2019); “Meetings on Art” in “The 58th Venice Biennale” (2019); Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2019); “Do Disturb Festival” in Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2019); Serpentine Galleries (London, 2019); Taipei Contemporary Art Center (Taipei, 2018); and Tate Modern (London, 2017).

Chin Tsao

Chin Tsao (b. 1989, Taipei, currently lives and works in Vienna) obtained her MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Her practice encompasses sculpture, installation, music, performance, and new media. Tsao’s work is deeply intrigued by the artificiality of materials and how they narrate human memory and history. In her art, she constructs an anachronistic backdrop to explore historical interactions between the East and the West, as well as the blending of the past and the future. These elements intertwine within the perception of time, reflecting the evolving identities of a post-globalization culture. 

Tsao’s work has been showcased at various prestigious venues, such as Belvedere 21 (Vienna, Austria), Galerie Martin Janda (Vienna, Austria), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, Austria), Nevven Gallery (Gothenburg, Sweden). She has also performed at renowned establishments such as Unsafe+Sounds Festival (Vienna, Austria), Rote Bar/Volkstheater Wien (Vienna, Austria) and mumok (Vienna, Austria). Notably, her ceramic pieces are part of the collection at mumok Vienna. Additionally, Tsao took on the role of curator for the event series EPHEMEROS in Vienna, focusing on the promotion of emerging artists and the queer feminist community.

Evelyn Taocheng Wang  

Evelyn Taocheng Wang (b. 1981, Chengdu, currently lives and works in Rotterdam) graduated with a Bachelor of Chinese Traditional Art from Nanjing Normal University (2006) and completed her MFA at HBK Städelschule (2012). Her work is constituted by a “constellation” of sources that span over various defined categories of art, including painting, calligraphy, installation, video, fashion design and performance. Her work serves as a medium and agency for multiple themes that she has set up: traditional Chinese art, modern and contemporary art, colonial history, queer theory, femininity and feminism. Through overlay and hybridization, the artist arrives at a vocabulary that integrates and interconnects these seemingly autonomous notions.

From 2012 to 2014, Wang completed an independent artist residence program at the De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Her work is in the collections of ABN AMRO Collection (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Art Institute of Chicago (US); Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (The Netherlands); and Centraal Museum (Utrecht, The Netherlands), among others.

Her recent solo exhibitions include: “An Equivocal Contrast” (Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2023); “Norwegian Music in Dutch Window” (Kayokoyuki, Tokyo, 2022); “Heart of Eyeshadows” (Antenna Space, Shanghai, 2021); “Reflection Paper” (Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 2021); “Het Bloemblaadje, Dat Tijdens Het Ochtendkrieken Was Gevallen, Paktte Ik Op In De Avondschemering” (Hermitage Museum with ABN Armo Art Prize, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2021); “Sour Gnossiennes” (Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, 2020); “Spreading Elegance” (FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France, 2019); “No Blood in the Afternoon” (Carlos/Ishikawa, London, 2019); “What is he afraid of?” (KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany, 2018); “Company” (New York, 2018); “Four Season of Women Tragedy” (Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017); “For An Embarrassed Person It is Always Very Difficult To Avoid Embarrassing Things” (Carlos/Ishikawa, London, 2017); “Heatweave Wrinkle” (Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles, 2017); and “Allegory of Transience” (Frans Hals Museum | De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, 2017), among others.

Selected group exhibitions include: “Horizens” (Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, 2022); “Busan Biennale 2022: We, On the Rising Wave” (Busan, 2022); “Note to Self” (Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, 2022); “To Be Like Water” (Tent, Rotterdam, 2021); “In The Midst of It All” (G Museum, Nanjing, 2021); “Ink City” (Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2021); “||| – She spins the thread, she measures the thread, she cuts the thread” (Nest, Den Haag, 2021); “Frequencies of Tradition” (Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China, 2020); “Risquons-Tout” (WIELS, Brussels, 2020); “Global(e) Resistance” (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2020); “In the Presence of Absence” (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2020); “Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Woman” (Times Arts Center, Berlin, 2019); “In my room” (Antenna Space, Shanghai, 2019); “Hollandse Nieuwe” (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2018); “It’s Get Better V” (ICA, London, 2017); “Public Programme” (Documenta, Kassel, 2017); and “Barbarians & Philosophers: Images of China in the Golden Age” (Frans Hals Museum, The Netherlands, 2016), among others.

Yuyan Wang

Yuyan Wang (b. 1989, Shandong, currently lives and works in Paris) graduated from Beaux-arts de Paris (2016) and Le Fresnoy - National Studio of Contemporary Arts (2020). She is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the impact of image creation in media, representation, and the attention economy. Both poetic and political, her practice focuses on the mutation of the industrial production chain of images, whose endless development leads to an abstraction of reality. Through recycling and repurposing images, her films challenge and subvert the functions and meanings of images, breaking down the hierarchies between found, processed, and created material. By utilizing editing, sound, and immersive environments, Wang alternates between creating focus from distraction, and ambiguity from clarity.

Wang’s work has been presented at Tate Modern (London), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), and the 12th Berlin Biennale. Her films have been selected for various festivals, such as the Berlinale International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the European Media Art Festival. She has also received multiple awards.

Guanyu Xu

Guanyu Xu (b. 1993, Beijing, currently based in Chicago) is influenced by both the ideology in American visual culture and a conservative familial upbringing in China. His practice extends from examining the production of power in photography to the question of personal freedom and its relationship to political regimes. From the perspective of a Chinese gay man, his creations depict his struggles with a displaced and fractured identity, as well as his experience drifting between countries, through photography, new media, and installation.

Xu is the recipient of the Chicago DCASE Artist Grant (2022); CENTER Development Grant (2021); Hyéres International Festival Prize (2020); PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai Exposure Award (2020); Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Annual Competition (2019); Lensculture Emerging Talent Award (2019); and Kodak Film Photo Award (2019). He has received artist residencies including ACRE (Chicago, IL), Light Work (Syracuse, NY), and Latitude (Chicago, IL).

His works have been exhibited and screened internationally at numerous institutions, such as the Aperture Foundation (New York); International Center of Photography (New York); Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago); New Orleans Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, (Houston); Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland); and the 36th Kasseler Dokfest (Germany). His work is in public collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Harvard Art Museums, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, and New Orleans Museum of Art.