First Floor
191 Wardour Street,
London, W1F 8ZE

Shen Xin

b. 1990, Chengdu, China; Lives and works in An t-eilean Sgitheanach (Isle of Skye), Scotland

Shen Xin is an artist working across moving image, installation, and performance to explore the power structures that define narratives of belonging and migration, as well as their potential re-imagining. Their work challenges dominant historical and political systems and stories, creating layered, polyphonic perspectives that embrace fluid identities and interwoven histories. The work engages with language to nurture connections between people, places, and histories. It is a practice deeply tied to specific locations and communities, recognizing that knowledge is not to be found in objective isolation, but is produced in the interconnection of relationships.

Shelter and exile, understood through the limits and layers of a place, aligns with indigenous ways of learning language—where language is more than just communication; it is a way of forming bonds and understanding the world. This is mirrored in the filmmaking process where film is used as a medium, not simply to document stories but actively shape new ways of understanding. Their work encodes histories, technologies, and kinship ties into moving images, making film a living space where language and knowledge grow together. Using a hybrid approach that blends documentary, fiction, and poetics, Shen Xin examines how beings, animals, plants and belief systems move through time and inhabit space. Their essayistic v...

Shen Xin

Bearing fruit of fondness
2025

Shen Xin

Solar Wheels
2024

Shen Xin

but this is the language we met in, Grounds of Coherence #1
2023

Shen Xin

ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར (The Earth Turned Green)

2023

Shen Xin

ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (The Earth Turned Green)
2022

Shen Xin

Brine Lake (A New Body)

2022

Shen Xin

Commerce des Esprits

2018

BIOGRAPHY

Shen Xin was born in 1990 in Chengdu, China. Currently living in An t-eilean Sgitheanach (Isle of Skye) with their life partner and sometime collaborator Ali Van. Their recent solo exhibitions include but this is the language we met in, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond (2024); one, arriving at floodplains, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai (2023); Brine Lake (A New Body), M HKA, Antwerp (2023); ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (THE EARTH TURNED GREEN), Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna (2023); ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (THE EARTH TURNED GREEN), Swiss Institute, New York (2022) and Brine Lake (A New Body), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2022). Recent group shows include 目 Chine, une nouvelle génération d’artistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); Another Tongue of Mine, Lisson Gallery, Beijing (2024); Poetry by the Barbarian, ASE Foundation, Shanghai (2024); with AX Archive, àirde na gaoithe, EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York (2024); 14th Shanghai Biennale: Cosmos Cinema, Shanghai (2023); 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale: THIS TOO, IS A MAP, Seoul (2023); Pixel Row Vol.4 Natural Vicissitude, West Bund Museum, Shanghai (2023); Open Your Eyes Underwater, SVA, New York (2022); Ghost 2565: Live Without Dead Time, Bangkok (2022); Language is a River, MUMA, Melbourne (2021); The Rearview Landscape, UCCA Dune Art Museum, Hebei (2021) and 13th Gwangju Biennale: Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, Gwangju (2021).

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CV

EDUCATION

2014
MFA Fine Art Media, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK

2012
BA Fine Art, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, SG

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025
TINA, London, UK (forthcoming)
Collective, Edinburgh, UK (forthcoming)

2024
but this is the language we met in, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, BC

2023
one, arriving at floodplains, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, CN
Brine Lake (A New Body), M HKA, Antwerp, BE
ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (THE EARTH TURNED GREEN), Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna, AT

2022
ས་གཞི་སྔོན་པོ་འགྱུར། (THE EARTH TURNED GREEN), Swiss Institute, New York, NY

2021
Brine Lake (A New Body), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

2019
To Satiate, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, CN
Protests Proclamations and Celebrations, University of Connecticut, CT

2018
Methods of Inhabiting, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, CN
Sliced Units, Esea Contemporary (CFCCA), Manchester, UK
Records of Rites, MIMA, Middlesbrough, UK

2017
Strongholds, Lychee One, London, UK

2016
At Home, Surplus Space, Wuhan, CN

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
Images Festival, Toronto, CAN (forthcoming)
39 Footnotes, Accent Sisters, New York, NY (forthcoming)

2024
目 Chine, une nouvelle génération d’artistes, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
Another Tongue of Mine, Lisson Gallery, Beijing, CN
Queer Strategies and Tentacles, e-flux online film program
Prosodic Grains, By Art Matters, Hang Zhou, CN
Cinema as a Uniting Language, SINEMA TRANSTOPIA, Berlin, DE
with Xiē, Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival, Mplus, Hong Kong, CN
European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, DE
Poetry by the Barbarian, ASE Foundation, Shanghai, CN
Becoming Abundance, This is the Time for Grace, Amsterdam, Maastricht, Arnhem, NL
with Xiē, Homely Feelings / On the Go, Asymmetry, London, UK
with AX Archive, àirde na gaoithe, EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, NY

2023
14th Shanghai Biennale: Cosmos Cinema, Shanghai, CN
12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale: THIS TOO, IS A MAP, Seoul, KR
with Xiē, Play and Loop V, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong, CN
Topologies of the Real: Techne Shenzhen, CN
Beyond Binary, part of Über das Neue, Blickle Kino at Belvedere 21, Vienna, AT
Pixel Row Vol.4 Natural Vicissitude, West Bund Museum, Shanghai, CN
Nián Nián, The Power and Agency of Animal Forms, DEJI Art Museum, Nanjing, CN
Dhaka Art Summit, National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, BD

2022
with Xiē, To bind, embed, shimmer, and brace, DAAD, Berlin, DE
Open Your Eyes Underwater, SVA, New York, NY
Ghost 2565: Live Without Dead Time, Bangkok, TH
In Solidarity with ____, OCAT x KADIST, Shanghai, CN
Action as Gesture, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, CN
ON | OFF 2021: Carousel of Progress, He Art Museum, Guangdong, CN
The Elephant Escaped, Macalline Art Center, Beijing, CN

2021
Language is a River, MUMA, Melbourne, AU
The Rearview Landscape, UCCA Dune Art Museum, Hebei, CN
13th Gwangju Biennale: Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, Gwangju, KR
Shen Xin + Guest: Tulapop Saenjaroen, Sirius Art Centre, Cobh, IE
Transmissions, Season 3 Episode 3, London, UK

2020
LOOP Barcelona, VIDEOCLOOP, Spain, ES
Why an Archive, Archive Außer Sich, Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, DE
Sino Wharf – From Chinatown to Red Internationalism, OCAT, Shenzhen, CN
PLAY & LOOP, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong, CN
An Impulse to Turn, Inside Out Museum, Beijing, CN

2019
Sigg Prize, M+ Museum, Hong Kong, CN
RijksakademieOpen, Amsterdam, NL
Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Woman, Times Art Center, Berlin, DE
Materializing Memory, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PA
Afterimage: Dangdai Yishu, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Landscape with bear, De Appel, Amsterdam, NL

2018
8102 On Reality, OCAT Shanghai, CN
New Metallurgists, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, DE
PLAY & LOOP, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong, CN
Screening, Decad, Berlin, DE
Behind the Terrain, Koganei Art Spot Chateau, Tokyo, JP
Emerald City, K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong, CN
4th New Museum Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, New York, NY
CONDO with MadeIn Gallery, Project Native Informant, London, UK

2017
Frontier, OCAT, Shanghai, CN
Misty Clouds Scattered Colours, Crown Buildings, Liverpool, UK
Pièce Touchée, Para Site, Hong Kong, CN
Urban Implosion, ACC, Gwangju, KR
Nawki by SPUR, Leeds Big Screen, Leeds, UK
BALTIC Artists’ Award, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Of Time and Space, Hanoi DocLab, Hanoi, VN
Americans 2017, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, CH
Shattered Sanctity, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, RC
Three Rooms, CAC, Shanghai, CN
The New Normal, UCCA, Beijing, CN

2016
Toward The Emergence Of Resistance, Taikang Space, Beijing, CN
Huayu Young Artist Award, Sanya, CN
Dragon Liver Phoenix Brain, OCAT, Shanghai, CN
You Won’t Be Young Forever, No.235 Guang Fu Road, Shanghai, CN
Pixel Park, Jing’an Sculpture Park, Shanghai, CN
Extravagant Imagination, The Wonder of Idleness, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, CN

2015
The Ballad of Generation Y, OCAT Shanghai, Shanghai, CN
Eyes of Sieves, Global Committee, New York, NY
Shoulders of Giants, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK
Kagoshima Art Festa, Kirishima Open Air Museum, Kagoshima, JP
Transitória 2: Articulações E (des) encontros, Redbull Station, São Paulo, BR
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall, UK
Aesthetica Art Prize, York, UK
Does Not Equal, W139, Amsterdam, NL
18th Japan Media Arts Festival, The National Art Center, Tokyo, JP

2014
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, The Mall, London, UK
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Liverpool Biennial, World Museum, Liverpool, UK
21st Century Graduate Screening, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK
35A Moving Image Festival, Le 6B, Paris, FR
Chinese Visual Festival, King’s College, London, UK
Oslo Screen Festival, International Video Art Festival, Oslo, NO
Difference or Sociality, Woburn Research Centre, UCL, London, UK

2013
Local Futures, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, CN
Open Studio, Listhus Art Space, Ólafsfjördur, IS
Cinema as Object, Woburn Research Centre, UCL, London, UK

2012
Peninsula & Islands, Taksu Gallery, Singapore, SG
The Lasalle Show ’12 Exhibition, Praxis Space, Singapore, SG

2011
Deploying Passages, Earl Lu Gallery, Singapore, SG
2nd International Painting Exhibition, Academy of Fine Arts Vladivostok, Russia, RU
Squared Invasion, Instinc Gallery, Singapore, SG
The Winston Oh Travel Award 2011, Praxis Space, Singapore, SG
The Collaborative Prize 2011, Brother Joseph McNally Gallery, Singapore, SG
That’s Another Story, Praxis Space, Singapore, SG

SOLO SCREENINGS, PERFORMANCES AND EVENTS

2025
Burns of a first language, vidéo et après, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR (forthcoming)

2024
but this is the language we met in / àirde na gaoithe, with AX Archive, EMPAC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, NY

2023
Provocation of a Nightingale #1, ArtReview, London, UK

2019
Double Feature, with Touch Me Not, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, DE
Synthetic Types, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Warm Spell, Western Front, Vancouver, CAN

2018
Warm Spell, ICA, London, UK

2017
half-sung, half-spoken, Serpentine Galleries, London, UK

2016
Originally Inclusive, Esea Contemporary (CFCCA), Manchester, UK
Forms Escape: Prologue, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK

2015
Shoulders of Giants, Senate House, London, UK

RESIDENCIES

2022
The Sister Dennis Frandrup Artists in Residence Program, Saint John’s University, Minnesota, MN

2020
Second Shift Studio, Saint Paul, Minnesota, MN

2019
Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL

2016
ACC-Rijksakademie Dialogue and Exchange, Gwangju & Amsterdam, NL
Treasure Hill Artist Village Residency, Taipei, RC

2015
Chronus Art Centre Fellowship for Chinese Artist, Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

2014
London/Stockholm Residency, SITE Studio, Stockholm, SE

2013
Listhús Artist Residency Program, Ólafsfjördur, IS

AWARDS, GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS

2023 - 2024
Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Minnesota, MN

2022
MRAC Next Step Fund, Minnesota, MN

2021
Jerome Production Grant, Minnesota, MN

2019
Sigg Prize shortlist, M+, Hong Kong, CN

2017
The Elephant Trust Grant for production of Warm Spell
BALTIC Artists’ Award, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

2014
Audrey Wykeham Prize, UCL, London, UK

2012
LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence, Singapore, SG

2011
LASALLE Award for Academic Excellence, Singapore, SG
The LASALLE Scholarship, Singapore, SG
The Winston Oh Travelogue Award, Singapore, SG