XINHAN Yú
Chinese. Born 1996 in China, lives and works in Bologna, Italy.
Xinhan Yú working 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 viewing structure controlled by a system. 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.
Graduated in Pittura Arti Visive with a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2022.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Playground, curated by Yulia Tikhomirova, Nelumbo Open Project, Bologna, Italy.
2022
Playground - Trovarsi la Guerra in Giardino, curated by Gate 26A, in collaboration with TIST.situations, Gate 26A Gallery, Modena, Italy.
AWARDS
The 13th Edition Combat Prize, Winner of the Gallery Prize, Livorno, 2022
The 4th Edition Exibart Prize, Third Prize, 2024
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Babele Rebuilt, curated by Moyu Yang & Chang Wang, UNTITLED project space, Berlin, Germany.
2025
Soft Assembly, curated by Josephine Fity & Jonathan Lieb, Oblong Space,Copenhagen.
Un-palinodic Recurrence, curated by Purist Gallery, London, UK.
Radical Rest - Cinemā Ōniro, curated by Captain Daddi, Okay Space, Athens, Greece.
Babele, curated by Lucrezia Nardi, Spazio Musa, Torino, Italy.
2024
Arte = Capitale, curated by Magazzeno Art Gallery, Ravenna, Italy.
2023
The last off-site show on the Earth at Plague Space and Everywhere, curated by Plague Space, Krasnodar, Russia.
Double& Duality, curated by Numero 51 Concept Gallery, Milan,Italy.
ReA! Art Fair, curated by ReA! Team, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy.
An increasing black dent in the night sky, curated by Spassetun Galery Space, Moscow, Russia.
Exhibition of 22/23 Sessions finalists of the Laguna Art Prize, Arsenale North, Venice, Italy.
Perspectives, curated by CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea.
2022
Brum Brum, with Stefano Riboli, curated by Alessia Pietropinto, Spazio 15, Brescia, Italy.
Mitologie Digitali, curated by Silvia Vannacci, Contemporary Matters and Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum, Prato, Italy / Taizhou, China.
Epilogo: Identità dissimili, curated by Luca Caccioni, Fondazione Carisbo, Bologna, Italy.
Start-up, curated by Valerio Dehò, Fair Bologna, Italy.
2021
Vasca Corta, curated by Gabriele Tosi and Filippo Tappi, Localedue Art Space, Bologna, Italy.
2019
The Independent Spirit, curated by Wei Hongshan, Enlai Gallery, Beijing, China.
Fissione e Mutazione, curated by Shuiding Gallery, Xiamen, China.