Tong Yi Xin

1988
Lushan Jiangxi China
Yi Xin Tong (b. 1988) was born in Lushan and currently lives and works in New York. He graduated with a BFA Honors from Simon Fraser University in 2012 and an MFA from New York University in 2014. Tong serves as an assistant professor at Pratt Institute in New York.

Tong acts covertly and makes noise. Through playful and seemingly fortuitous ways, he creates objects, moving images, and line works to explore wilderness and absurdity, research the poetics of paradoxes, and interfere with reason and rules. Born on Mount Lu, Tong studied geology at China University of Geosciences in Beijing, received his BFA from Simon Fraser University, and MFA from NYU. His work has recently been exhibited at Rockbund Art Museum, By Art Matters Museum, Palais de Tokyo, Today Art Museum, Hessel Museum of Art, Macalline Art Center, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Para Site, Vanguard Gallery, and Candice Madey. In 2021, he won the inaugural Choi Foundation Prize for Contemporary Art.

In 2025, Post-Natural Oasis at Alisan Fine Arts New York marked the gallery's first collaboration with the artist.


BIOGRAPHY

1988   Born in Lushan Jiangxi China
2005   
Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China 

2007   Graduated from China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China

2012   BFA, Visual Art Honours, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
2014   MFA, Studio Art, New York University, New York, USA

2023   Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute, New York, USA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

  • Taoist Punk, Candice Madey, New York, USA 
  • Bony Horseman, De Liceiras, Porto, Portugal 

2023

  • Ring over Pond over Tusks, Candice Madey, New York, USA

2022

  • Environmental Love Manual, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 
  • Environment, mon amour, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China 
  • Petrified Seas, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China 

2020

  • World River Atlas, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China 

2017

  • NYC Fishing Trip, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, USA 
  • Alien, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China 2016
  • Strange New Health, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, Canada 

2013

  • Claude Is Allergic to Unicorns, 80 WSE Gallery, New York, USA


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

2024

  • Shanshui Reboot, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA 
  • Wan Hai Hotel, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China 

2023

  • Motion is Action – 35 Years of Chinese Media Art, By Art Matters Museum, Hangzhou, China
  • Nián Nián, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China 

2022

  • Beast, Chimera, Kin, Hessel, Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, USA 
  • Multispecies Clouds, Macalline Art Center, Beijing, China 
  • Liquid Ground, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art Dune, Aranya, China 

2021

  • OCAT Biennale – Boomerang, OCT Art & Design Gallery, Shenzhen, China 
  • Liquid Ground, Para Site, Hong Kong, China 

2020

  • Meditations in an Emergency, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China 

2019

  • BRIC Biennial III, BRIC House, Brooklyn, USA 
  • Disaster of Extra Epic Proportions, chi K11 art museum, Shanghai, China
  • Long March Project: The Deficit Faction, Long March Space, Beijing, China
  • Long Day, Aranya Art Centre, Qinhuangdao, China 

2018

  • Life and Revolution: Landscape of Huangshan and Lushan, Taikang Space, Beijing, China 

2017

  • Roadside Picnic, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA 
  • 40 Pest Street, Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York, USA 
  • LIGHT UP Therapy Resort, PSA 2017 
  • Emerging Curators Project, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai 
  • JNBY Festival n.2, JNBY Concept store, Beijing 
  • To Be an Image Maker, Jimei Arles International Photo Festival, Jimei Citizen Center, Xiamen 
  • Tall Non-Fat Raspberry White Mocha Latte, Investment Projects, New York, USA 
  • Photo Shanghai, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China 
  • Being Information, SSSSTART, Shanghai, China 
  • All-Day Breakfast, First Canada Place Gallery, Toronto, Canada 
  • Drive-thru, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, Canada 
  • Beat the System Like a Dead Horse, Museum Gallery, Brooklyn, USA 
  • All Happens after Sunset…, MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China 
  • Vestigial Future, Gallery 456, New York, USA 
  • LEAP Screen: What You See is Not What You See, Photofairs, San Francisco, USA

2016

  • Trembling Surfaces, Long March Space, Beijing, China 
  • Lots of Pulp, SBC Gallery, Brooklyn, USA 
  • Bad Religion, Lyeberry HQ, Brooklyn, USA 
  • An All-encompassing All Sounds, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China 
  • ART021, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China
  • West Bund Art & Design 2016, Vanguard Gallery, West Bund Art Center, Shanghai, China
  • Dark Adaptations, 80 WSE Gallery, New York, USA
  • Concept Now, Xinhua 1949 Cultural and Design Park, Beijing, China
  • Photo Shanghai, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China Warehouse Story, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
  • Broken Machine, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, USA
  • Miller Time, Katzman Contemporary, Toronto, Canada
  • Action - Chang Lichi Collection Exhibition, Blue Roof Museum, Chengdu, China 
  • Reknown, NYU Shanghai Art Gallery, Shanghai, China

2015

  • The Real Thing, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
  • Emerging Digital Artists Award screening, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
  • Gas Station: The Rubber Trumpet, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, China
  • Feature Art Fair, Katzman Contemporary, Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre, Toronto, Canada
  • Retina of theUnconscious, The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery, New York, USA
  • Moving Image Programme, OCAT Museum, Shanghai, China
  • West Bund Art & Design 2015, Vanguard Gallery, West Bund Art Center, Shanghai, China
  • Photo Shanghai, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai, China 
  • Remainder; Us for never forever for the first and the last month, Space Baptist, Brooklyn, USA
  • Household Goods and Gift Items, Utopia Parkway, Queens, New York, USA
  • Through a Window: Visual Art and SFU 1965-2015, Vancouver, Canada
  • Nightstand, Galerie de La Rotonde de Stalingrad, Paris, France

2014

  • Begin from Chaos, Inna Contemporary Art Space, Hangzhou, China
  • Boxes: Lost in Circulation, Flushing Town Hall, Queens, USA
  • Reflecting on Olana, Catwalk Institute, Catskill, USA
  • Pingyao International Photography Festival, Ancient City of Pingyao, China
  • Somewhere Else, DeKalb Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA
  • I Like Fluorescent Light (I Love the Sun), 80 WSE Gallery, New York, USA

2013

  • Black Jacket and Black Sunglasses, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
  • DUMBO Arts Festival Exhibition, 85 Washington Street Gallery, Brooklyn, USA
  • Stony Brook University Philosophy and the Arts Conference Exhibition, The Alchemical Theatre, Laboratory, New York, USA
  • Art/Work, Coohaus Art, New York, USA
  • Proof 20, Gallery 44, Toronto, Canada
  • NYU First Year MFA Exhibition, Rosenberg Gallery, New York, USA

2012

  • LOSING GROUND: Experimental Video shorts from Canada's West Coast, VIVO Media Arts, Centre and Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art, Embassy of Canada, Berlin, Germany 
  • BMO1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Canadian, Art, Toronto, Canada 
  • ANIMATION AUTOMATION, Khyber Arts Centre, Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, Canada I Flux, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
  • Urban Art Exhibition, Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada
  • So Crazy It Just Might Work, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2011

  • Square Pegs IV, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, Kingston, Canada
  • Summer Live: time-based video program, Vancouver 125, Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada
  • Counter Mapping, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Roundhouse, Vancouver, Canada
  • A Furtive Conundrum: Practicing the Furtive, 1612 Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
  • BYOB Vancouver, Drop Out Video Arts, W2 Storyeum, Vancouver, Canada
  • I Could Be Wrong, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2010

  • Signal & Noise X Media Art Festival, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver, Canada
  • The Sci-Fi Show, Gam Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
  • TRADE, 221A Artist Run Centre, off-site exhibition at Center A, Vancouver, Canada
  • For the Moment, W2 Community Media Arts, Vancouver, Canada
  • EVEN, 221A Artist Run Centre, Vancouver, Canada


SELECTED AWARDS

2021   Prix de la Fondation Choi pour l’art contemporain, China, France 

2018   Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant, Canada

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