Cheng Xinhao (b.1985 in Yunnan Province, China) currently lives and works in Kunming, China. He received his Ph.D in Chemistry from Peking University in 2013. Cheng’s works are usually based on long-term field studies, centered around his hometown in Yunnan Province. With videos, installations, photographs and words, he personally investigates the polyphonic relationships between logic, discourses, knowledge, and the ways in which nature, society, and history play within them.
程新皓，1985 年出生于云南。2013 年毕业于北京大学化学与分子工程学院，获博士学位。现作为艺术家工作生活于云南昆明。他的作品通常基于长期的田野调查，并均与故乡云南相关。通过身体在场的工作方式，程新皓使用录像、装置、摄影与文字等媒介，体察不同来源的逻辑、话语、知识与其背后自然、社会、历史，及镶嵌于其中的行动者之间的复调链接。
Selected Exhibitions (in China/Abroad）
Solo
Silver...and Other Elements, Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, 2024
Floating Wood and Drowning Stone, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, 2021
The Fool's Gold, OCAT Shenzhen, 2019
Three Depictions of a River, 1903Space, Kunming, 2019
Group
15th Shanghai Biennale “Does the Flowers Hear the Bee? ”, Shanghai, 2025
Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2025
Rural Eyes：Chinese Rural Photography Archives 1920s-2020s, Gaofan Photography Museum, Hangzhou, 2025
Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, EMΣT, Athens，2025
Three Tired Tigers, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, 2024
Beyond the Soil, Han Shan Art Museum, Suzhou, 2024
Tracé Bleu: AS 50th Anniversary Exhibition, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, 2024
15th Gwangju Biennale "Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century", Gwangju, 2024
STUDY II: Natural History, Alternative Knowledge and Deep Learning, ShanghART, Beijing, 2024
Go With the Flow, Fotografiska Shanghai, Shanghai, 2024
Pathway of Life, Outside Art Space, Beijing, 2024
Dianchi Art Season, Kunming, 2024
Nomads in the South: Rivers, Tunnels, Dampness and Constellations, Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, 2023
3rd Thailand Biennale "The Open World", Chiang Rai, 2023
The River We Share, From Lancang to Mekong, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing，2023
Walking China: Stories yet to be told, ICA Gallery, Shanghai, 2023
In Between The Fields, Chunyangtai, Guangzhou, 2023
Living a Performance Artist's Life: 2023 Performance Art Documental Exhibition, MadeIn Art Museum, Shanghai, 2023
Heading West, Yunjian Arts Centre, Shanghai, 2023
After Landscape, Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Kunming, 2022
1st Beijing Biennial "Symbiosis", Beijing, 2022
Sulaimani: Nomandology of Ulus, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2022
Vento Solar, Pinacoteca do Ceará, Fortaleza, 2022
The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2021, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, 2022
Becoming Creature, Tabula Rasa Gallery, London, 2022
The Language of Mushrooms: The Interspecies Internet, Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Kunming, 2022
The Port and the Image 3: Echoes of the Port, China Port Museum, Ningbo, 2022
River Pulses, Border Flows, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2022
I Recognized the World:Born in the 80s and 90s, MoCA Yinchuan, Yinchuan, 2021
Air Waste Health Water Energy Soil, Gleis 70, Zurich, 2021
An Archive: Seven Trails, Taikang Space, Beijing, 2020
The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2019, Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, 2020
Study of Things, Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2020
Critical Zones, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2020
An Impulse to Turn, Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, 2020
UN/CONVENTIONAL, OCAT Shanghai, Shanghai, 2020
Sunset on a Dead End - The Notorious and Their Inexplicable Modes of Existence, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2019
Stream Chapter 5, South Windham, Vermont, 2019
Re: Everything which exists under the sky, Gasworks, London, 2019
How Now • The Life App, How Art Museum, Shanghai, 2019
Inside the Labyrinth of Knossos, Lianzhou foto festival 2018, Lianzhou, 2018
TOUS LES CHEVAUX DU ROI, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, 2018
Documenting China, Story of Change, Photoville 2018, New York, 2018
40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 2018
The Folded Mountain 2: Scanning Shanshui, Han Shan Art Museum, Suzhou, 2018
Ten Directions: the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of the Three Shadows Photography Award, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, 2018
Frontier：Re-Assessment of Post-Globalisitional Politics, OCAT Institute, Beijing, 2018
Notes on Region, Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Kunming, 2018
The Imaginations of a Museum, J-Gallery, Shanghai, 2018
Frontier：Re-Assessment of Post-Globalisitional Politics, OCAT Shanghai, 2017
Polyphony: Ecological Servey of Chinese Art • Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, AMNUA, Nanjing, 2017
Stream Chapter 4, South Windham, Vermont, 2017
Author Book Award Arles, Arles, 2017
Finalist Exhibition of 2016 New Talent Award, Shanghai, 2017
Aperture First Photobook Award, Paris, 2016
Screenings & Film Festivals
Crossing: A Collaborative Screening Program Taking Place across China, KADIST, 2025
Hive - AI Utopia I : Confrontation and Symbiosis, Hive, Beijing, 2025
Falling into Place: Rubble and Ripple, VIDEOTAGE, Hong Kong, 2025
Silent, Slow, Undercurrent, Osf, Guangzhou, 2024
Photographic Geomancy: Images, Fieldwork, and the Poetics of Geography, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2024
CIFRA & Sleepless Video Art Night, Venice, 2024
March of the Elephants, The Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, 2024
Illuminating the Margins, RAM, Shanghai, 2024
VIDEOCLOOP 2023, Barcelona, 2023
Art SG Film, Singapore, 2023
UnionDocs, New York, 2019
Close-up Cinema, London, 2019
Awards
2024 CIFRA “Marco Polo (Re)imagined”, “Bridging East and West” section, winner;
2023 After Nature . Ulrike Crespo Photography Prize, nominated;
2022 2nde édition du Prix Choi pour l’art contemporain Les lauréats, shortlisted;
2017 Abigail Cohen Fellowship (Magnum Foundation/ChinaFile), winner;
2017 6th Hou Dengke Documentary Photograph Award, winner;
2017 Author Book Award Arles, shortlisted;
2016 New Talent Award, shortlisted;
2016 Aperture First Photobook Award, shortlisted;
2015 Shiseido Photography Award, winner;
2015 Three Shadows Photography Award, shortlisted.
Funds
A Time to Gather Stones Together was funded by With For About of Heart of Glass;
Strange Terrains was funded by Guyu-Danfeng Foundation of Intangible Cultural
Heritage in 2016 and by Sina Photo Foundation in 2014;
The Documentary of a Village was funded by OFPiX Foundation in 2012.
Publications
24 Mails from the Railway (2020, Jiazazhi Press; 2023, China Academy of Art Press);
Time from Different Sources: Images from Ciman Village (2017, Jiazazhi Press);
The Naming of a River (2016, Jiazazhi Press).
Residency
RanRan Artists-in-Residence Program, Shanghai, 2024
Fuxian Lake AiR Program, Chengjiang, 2023
Pro Helvetia 2020 studio residency, Gleis 70 in Zurich (Switzerland), 2021
Meadows Bee Farm residency, Vermont (US), 2019
Gasworks curatorial residency, London (UK), 2019
Public Collections
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen (Denmark);
China Port Museum, Ningbo (China);
Contemporary Gallery Kunming, Kunming (China).
As Trekker
2019 Trekking the Chinese section of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway (Kunming to Hekou), 449km, 18 days walking
2021 Trekking the Swiss section of the Rhine River (source to Konstanz), 200+km, 10 days walking
2022 Participating in the Chinese section of the Paul Salopek Out of Eden Walk, from Kangding to Ya'an, about 200km, 6 days walking
2022 Solo crossing of the Biluo Snow Mountain, from Yingpan town to Zhizilo village, about 50 kilometres, completed within 45 hours after the COVID test negative result
2023 -2024 Trekking the Chinese section of the Burma Road (Kunming to Ruili), 875km, 41 days walking
2025 Walked along Xu Xiake's trail from Kunming to Jinsha River without using satellite maps and navigation, about 230km, 11 days walking
2025 Started to walk Xu Xiake's trail in Yunnan in sections
部分展览
个展
“银……及其它元素”，蓝星当代美术馆，圣安东尼奥，2024
“浮木沉石”，Tabula Rasa 画廊，北京，2021
“愚人金”，OCAT 深圳馆，深圳，2019
“对一条河流的三次摹写”，1903 空间，昆明，2019
群展
第15届上海双年展“花儿听到蜜蜂了吗？”，上海，2025
“保持在线：2008年后的艺术与中国”，大馆当代美术馆，香港，2025
“乡村眼：中国乡村摄影档案 1920s-2020s”，高帆摄影艺术馆，杭州，2025
“为何凝视动物？为非人类生命的权利辩护”，雅典国家当代艺术博物馆，雅典，2025
“三只疲惫的虎”，贾米尔艺术中心，迪拜，2024
“以土为源”，寒山美术馆，苏州，2024
“蓝图：AS建筑工作室五十周年系列主题展”，同济大学建筑与城市规划学院，上海，2024
第15届光州双年展 “盘索里，21世纪声景”，光州，2024
“学习Ⅱ：博物学、另类知识和深度学习”，香格纳画廊，北京，2024
“河流故事”，Fotografiska Shanghai，上海，2024
“生活之路”，外部空间，北京，2024
“滇池风土艺术季”，昆明，2024
“游牧在南方：河流、隧道、湿热、星群”，坪山美术馆，2023
第3届泰国双年展 “开放世界”，清莱，2023
“我们共享的河流，从澜沧江到湄公河”，中间美术馆，北京，2023
“徒步中国：未曾讲述的故事”，上纽ICA，上海，2023
“辶反田野”，春阳台，广州，2023
“活成行为艺术家——2023行为艺术文献展”，没顶美术馆，上海，2023
“向西：从上海到松江，然后抵达江南”，云间第一展厅，上海，2023
“风景后”，昆明当代美术馆，昆明，2022
首届北京艺术双年展 “共生”，北京，2022
“苏麻离青——游牧的兀鲁思”，上海当代艺术博物馆，上海，2022
Vento Solar，Pinacoteca do Ceará，福塔莱萨，2022
“2021 中国当代艺术年鉴展”, 上海多伦美术馆，上海，2022
Becoming Creature，Tabula Rasa 画廊，伦敦，2022
“蘑菇之语：万物互联的网络”，昆明当代美术馆，昆明，2022
“港口与影像3——口岸的回响”，中国港口博物馆，宁波，2022
“河流脉搏——穿越边界交叠的世界”，广东时代美术馆，广州，2022
“我认出了世界——生于八、九十年代”，银川当代美术馆，银川，2021
Air Waste Health Water Energy Soil，Gleis 70，苏黎世，2021
“文献集：七个线索”, 泰康空间，北京，2020
“2019 中国当代艺术年鉴展”, 坪山美术馆，深圳，2020
“格物致知”，广东时代美术馆，广州，2020
Critical Zones，ZKM，卡尔斯鲁厄，2020
“忍不住转身”，中间美术馆，北京，2020
“自由联接”，OCAT 上海馆，上海，2020
“末路斜阳——‘ 声名狼藉者’ 及其不可解的存在方式”，上海当代艺术博物馆，上海，2019
Stream Chapter 5，佛蒙特，2019
“回致：天空与万物”，Gasworks，伦敦，2019
“How Now • 生活应用”，昊美术馆，上海，2019
“在克诺索斯的迷宫中”，2018 连州国际摄影年展，连州，2018
“ ‘工作’—— 来自5 位艺术家的实践”，TabulaRasa 画廊，北京，2018
DocumentingChina, Story of Change， Photoville 2018， 纽约，2018
“中国当代摄影40 年（1976-2018）”，OCAT 深圳馆，深圳，2018
“折山图2：扫描山水”，寒山美术馆，苏州，2018
“十方：三影堂摄影奖十周年特展”，三影堂摄影艺术中心，北京，2018
“疆域—— 地缘的拓扑”，OCAT 研究中心，北京，2018
“地缘笔记”，昆明当代美术馆，昆明，2018
“关于一个博物馆的想象”，J-Gallery，上海，2018
“疆域—— 地缘的拓扑”，OCAT 上海，2017
“复调4：中国艺术生态调查• 云贵川站”，南京艺术学院美术馆，南京，2017
Stream Chapter 4，佛蒙特，2017
“阿尔勒摄影节作者书奖入围展”，阿尔勒，2017
“2016 新锐摄影奖入围展”，上海，2017
“光圈‘ 第一本书奖’ 入围展”，巴黎，2016
放映与电影节
“渡：一次穿行中国的影像放映”，卡蒂斯特基金会，2025
“AI理想国艺术项目”第一回展：对抗与共生”，蜂巢画廊，北京，2025
“落定之后：回光/未灭”，VIDEOTAGE，香港，2025
“沉默，缓慢，潜流”，前台osf，广州，2024
“相地堪舆：图像、田野与地理的诗学”放映单元，广东时代美术馆，广州，2024
ARKIPEL国际纪录与实验电影节“Garden of Earthly Delights”, 雅加达, 2024
CIFRA & Sleepless Video Art Night, 威尼斯, 2024
March of the Elephants, The Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, 维也纳, 2024
“照亮边缘”，外滩美术馆，上海，2024
VIDEOCLOOP 2023, 巴塞罗那, 2023
Art SG Film, 新加坡, 2023
UnionDocs, 纽约, 2019
Close-up Cinema, 伦敦, 2019