Xinhan Yú (b. 1996, Nanking, CHN)
Graduated in Pittura Arti Visive with a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2022. He currently lives and works in Bologna.
Xinhan Yú works with video, installation, and image-based media. His practice focuses on power structures and institutional violence. He treats violence as an embedded systemic logic. Through his work, he investigates how power shapes identity via technological, symbolic, and routine mechanisms. A consistent preference for rough textures, humor, and bold forms of expression defines his aesthetic. Recurring elements such as childhood imagery, public authority, internet culture, and video game systems run through his projects. These components allow him to examine the tension between personal experience, collective memory, and technological structures.
His work avoids direct critique, moral positions, or emotional release. Instead, it forces viewers into a system-controlled viewing structure. Within this framework, audiences gradually recognize they are more than just witnesses to violence. They see themselves as trained and disciplined participants within its mechanisms. By constructing systems that appear calm, repetitive, and consistent, Yú reveals how power is continuously reproduced and sustained within everyday visual and technical frameworks.
Solo:
Playground, curated by Yulia Tikhomirova, Nelumbo Open Project, Bologna, 2021
Playground - Trovarsi la Guerra in Giardino, curated by Gate 26A, in collaboration with TIST.situations, Gate 26A Gallery, Modena, 2022
Duo:
嗡嗡 Brum Brum, with Stefano Riboli, curated by Alessia Pietropinto, Spazio 15, Brescia, 2022
Xinhan Yú X Mandalaki X Antonini Milano, curated by N.51 Concept Gallery, Borromeo Palace, Milan, 2024
Units/ Identity with Giulia Quelin, curated by Ghëddo e Mucho Mas!, Space Mucho Mas!, Turin, 2026
Selected Group Exhibitions:
Babele Rebuilt, curated by Moyu Yang & Chang Wang, UNTITLED project space, Berlin, 2026
Soft Assembly, curated by Josephine Fity & Jonathan Lieb, Oblong Space, Copenhagen, 2025
𝙐𝙣-𝙥𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙘 𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, curated by Purist Gallery, London, 2025
Radical Rest - Cinemā Ōniro, curated by Captain Daddi, Okay Space, Athens, 2025
Babele, curated by Lucrezia Nardi, Spazio Musa, Torino, 2025
Arte = Capitale, curated by Magazzeno Art Gallery, Ravenna, 2024
The last off-site show on the Earth at Plague Space and Everywhere, curated by
Plague Space, Krasnodar, 2023Double& Duality, curated by Numero 51 Concept Gallery, Milan, 2023
ReA! Art Fair, curated by ReA! Team, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, 2023
An increasing black dent in the night sky, curated by Spassetun Gallery Space, Moscow, 2023
Perspectives, curated by CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea, 2023
Mitologie Digitali, curated by Silvia Vannacci, Contemporary Matters and Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum, Prato / Taizhou, 2022
Epilogo: Identità dissimili, curated by Luca Caccioni, Fondazione Carisbo, Bologna, 2022
Start-up, curated by Valerio Dehò, Fair Bologna, 2022
Vasca Corta, curated by Gabriele Tosi and Filippo Tappi, Localedue Art Space, Bologna, 2021
The Independent Spirit, curated by Wei Hongshan, Enlai Gallery, Beijing, 2019
Fissione e Mutazione, curated by Shuiding Gallery, Xiamen, 2019
Awards:
The 13th Edition Combat Prize, Vincitore Premio Galleria, Livorno, 2022
The 4th Edition Exibart Prize, Third Prize, Livorno, 2024