Chen Xiaoyi

Early Years

Chen Xiaoyi was born in Sichuan in 1992. Her maternal grandfather was a key influence on her: not only did he encourage her creativity, but he allowed her to play with his camera, which sparked an interest in photography. Leaving China for England, she studied at Leeds Metropolitan University between 2010—2013, gaining a degree in photographic journalism. However, she realised that the narrative method of news photography was not how she personally understood images, and for her MA (at the University of the Arts London) she switched her focus to fine art photography and became fascinated by the creative process of developing images in the darkroom.

Chen Xiaoyi: Artworks

Across photography, photogravure, sculpture, sound and video installations, Chen Xiaoyi’s works examine the intersection of different forms of existence within geological and cosmological timeframes. She plays with scale—for example, magnifying water drops in her Hidden Time (2015—2016) series—and draws inspiration from her environment. She has spent a great deal of time in the Hengduan Mountains, yet this is not her only geographical influence: in 2018 she lived in Switzerland and became fascinated by glacial erratics. Her 2025 exhibition Moths and Butterflies/Goodbye/All the Weight of the World considers ecological memory and how humans occupy the Earth: “It is an attempt to re-understand how to continue existing in a world that is vast, silent, indifferent, and ancient.”

• 2014’s Koan series, which won the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2015, was inspired by a trip to Iceland. Chen Xiaoyi used photogravure to create black-and-white prints that add an imaginative layer to the Icelandic landscape.
• In 2017’s Never Measure the Measure, 80 unmarked thermometers are arranged together, with no precise readings. Removing the temperature markers asks the viewer to consider perception and meaning.
• Foam, Form—Phase II (2020) features an image of a bubble just before it bursts, which condenses on a series of curled aluminium plates, emphasising the fragility of the bubble at its critical point.

Chen Xiaoyi: Select Awards

• winner of the Photofusion Prize 2014
• winner of the Three Shadows Photography Award 2015
• nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award in 2017, 2020 and 2025

Chen Xiaoyi: Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Moths and Butterflies/Goodbye/All the Weight of the World, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2025)
• Spoken Leaves, Matèria Gallery, Rome (2024)
• The Epoch of Rippling Hengduan Mountains: The Nameless Lands, Chronus Art Centre, Shanghai (2023)
• The Epoch of Rippling Hengduan Mountains: I am supposed to tell you some of the words I heard deep down in the sea..., Jimei X Arles Discovery Award, Xiamen (2022)
• The Epoch of Rippling Hengduan Mountains: I am supposed to tell you some of the words I heard deep down in the sea..., A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2022)
• Streit, Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, Chengdu (2020)
• The stranger:...and while I blossomed all alone, the world slumbered..., Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing (2018)
• The stranger:...and while I blossomed all alone, the world slumbered..., Theatre Crochetan, Monthey (2018)
• One Giant Leap, Matèria Gallery, Rome (2017)
• “Never!”, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2017)
• The Inadequacy of Language, Matèria Gallery, Rome (2016)

Select Group Exhibitions

• After Fire, Aranya Art Centre, Aranya (2026)
• Stay Connected: Supplying the Globe, JC Contemporary, Hong Kong (2026)
• Conversation with the Stone, ShanghART WestBund Central, Shanghai (2025)
• You light, My light, Centru Cultural Chinez din Bucuresti, Bucharest (2024)
• Mercury’s Tail, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan (2023)
• Celestial Bodies, La Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse, Mulhouse (2022)
• Quartet—Polyphonic Narration of Contemporary Art, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2021)

Further reading

• Chen Xiaoyi’s website
• Chen Xiaoyi’s Instagram
• Artist profile page at 1,000 Plateaus
• A 2024 interview by Qi Jinian in Art Review

Chen Xiaoyi FAQs

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