WANG Tuo

Wang Tuo (b. 1984 in Changchun, China) currently lives and works in Beijing. Through various media, including film, performance, painting, and writing, he interweaves art history, cultural archives, literature, and mythology to construct narratives that blur the boundaries of time and space. Drawing upon perspectives from intellectual history and political philosophy, Wang examines the complex entanglements between the disruptions of modernity in China and East Asia and the contemporary dilemmas that emerge. By engaging with the concept of “hauntology” within the Chinese context, he introduces “pan-shamanization” as a proactive mechanism shaped by historical forces to evoke suppressed and untreated memories of the 20th century, revealing the hidden logics within current social power structures and the intricate relationships between collective unconsciousness and historical trauma.

Wang has recently held solo exhibitions at K21, Düsseldorf; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Present Company, New York; Salt Project, Beijing; Taikang Space, Beijing. He has also participated in group exhibitions at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf; Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden; Queens Museum, New York; Kino der Kunst, Munich; Zarya Center for Contemporary Art, Vladivostok; Incheon Art Platform, Incheon; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; OCAT, Shenzhen & Shanghai; Times Museum, Guangzhou; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung. Wang was an Artist in Residence at the Queens Museum in New York from 2015 to 2017. He received the China Top Shorts Award and the Outstanding Art Exploration Award at the Beijing International Short Film Festival in 2018. Wang was also awarded the Three Shadows Photography Award in 2018 and the Youth Contemporary Art Wuzhen Award in 2019, OCAT x KADIST Media Artist Prize in 2020. Wang was the recipient of the Sigg Prize 2023 from the M+ Museum in Hong Kong and the K21 Global Art Award from K21 Düsseldorf in 2024.