Shuyi Cao
Shuyi Cao is a New York-based artist whose practice explores alchemical approaches to material, matter and knowledge osmosis. Through archaeological speculation and ecological fiction, she contemplates the porous plurality of relations between sciences, technocultures, mythologies, and cosmologies. Her multi-medium sculpture and installation traverse enormous and microscopic scales, involving more/less/other-than-human worlds. Her making methods synthesize dynamic spatiotemporal configuration and material transformation, from ceramic and glass making with wild clay, sand, mineral, and earth elements to digital fabrication such as 3D printing and virtual environment simulation. Combining hand-crafted objects, technological artefacts, and moving images, she creates paradoxical fossils - tangible and intangible - as portals to meditate geotrauma, transcorporeal ecology and prehistoric futurity.
Her work has been shown internationally, including recent solo shows Ardor for Unconformity (2024) at 11th Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine, Quebec, Undercurrent Softness (2023) at Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shanghai, a duo show Strange Stranger (2023) at Para Site, Hong Kong; and group exhibitions at He Art Museum, Foshan (2023), TAG Museum (Qingdao), Aranya Art Centre, Beidaihe (2023), Hyundai Motorstudio, Beijing (2023), Chronus Art Centre, Shanghai (2022), Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2021), Today Art Museum, Beijing (2021), NARS Foundation, New York (2021). She is a visiting assistant professor at Pratt Institute, founder of Transmaterial Lab, and held positions as artist-in-residency at Guangdong Times Museum, Banff Centre for the Art, New Museum NEW INC, Power Station of Art Shanghai, and The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She received a Bachelor of Laws, an M.A. in Public Administration from Fudan University in Shanghai, and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York.
Shuyi Cao (b. 1990 Guangzhou, China) lives and works in New York, USA
Solo and Group Exhibitions
2025
Upcoming - Winding without Shore, Gathering, London, UK Upcoming - Underwater, On Fire, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA Clay), Yixing, China Upcoming - Mad Heart, Be Brave, Fridman Gallery, New York, USA Upcoming - Base Materialism, Albion Jeune, London, UK Braided Stream, Bank/MABSOCIETY NYC, New York, USA Unearthed, Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), California, USA
2024
And When The Sea Was Open, Island Gallery, New York, USA Ardor for Unconformity, the 11th Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine, Quebec, Canada Alien, David Castillo, Miami, USA Jing’an International Sculpture Project (JISP), Jing’an Sculpture Park, Shanghai, China Tangent Media, Gravity Field Art Gallery, Shenzhen, China Pulse of the Hinterland, The 4th Xinjiang International Art Biennale 2024 - Xinjiang Art Museum, Urumqi, China Unidentified object, Song Art Museum, Beijing, China Réenchantement, Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France Weirding Worlds, PODIUM Gallery, Hong Kong
2023
Undercurrent Softness, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China Strange Stranger, with Leelee Chan, Para-Site, Hong Kong How Far How Close, Aranya Art Center, Beidaihe, China Metamorphic Ecosphere, Hyundai Motorstudio, Beijing, China Seaward, TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China Tales of the South, He Art Museum, Shunde, China Offworlds, YveYang Gallery, New York, USA Learning to read from lips and stones, Below Grand Gallery, New York, USA Melting Rock, Still Wind, Yamanaka Suplex, Osaka, Japan Steadfastly Revise for the Standards in Nonproductive Construction (Part II: Liquid Flow), Long March Space, Beijing, China Terrains of Skin, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2022
Shadow Metabolism, Hazel and Robert Siegel Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, USA The Language of Mushrooms, Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Yunnan, China Entangled: bio/media, Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China Chthonic Spoil, Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada Matter Matters, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA
2021
Utterance, NARS Art Foundation, New York, USA Reshape, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China Do Not Black Out, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, China Blue Cables in Venetian Watercourse, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2019
Let’s try listening again: 13th A.I.R. Biennial, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, USA
2018
Artificial River Has No Memories, site-specific installation, MASS MoCA, North Adams, USA Growing Pebbles, SLEEPCENTER Gallery, New York, USA The Hybrid of Beings, Westbeth Gallery, New York, USA