aaajiao (b.1984, Xi’an, China) now lives and works in Shanghai and Berlin. The artist and activist aaajiao—the online handle of Xu Wenkai—draws on a broad range of languages including sculpture, painting, drawing, multimedia installation, video, sound and design to explore the evolution of the human identity being assimilated by the digital world. Focusing on the experience of the new generation—the native inhabitant of the parallel worlds and saturated realities of the net—aaajiao’s work is a critical investigation into the countless possibilities offered by the digital and the numerous questions raised by this hyper-technologization.
aaajiao’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, His recent solo exhibitions include: Pinky Swear, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2025); A bit A prompt, SETAREH (Berlin, 2024); membrane, Star Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Diaspora as History, Liste with Tabula Rasa Gallery (Basel, 2022); I was dead on the Internet, Wannsee Contemporary (Berlin, 2022); I was dead on the Internet, Lianhua Apartment (Shanghai, 2021); Deep Simulator, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2021); Deep Simulator, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2020) ; URL is LOVE - A Digital Retrospective, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2020); Cave Simulator, Aike (Shanghai, 2020); a’a’a’jiao: an ID, HOW Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); bot, House of Egorn (Berlin, 2018); Gluttony, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space (Chengdu, 2018); User, Love, High-frequency Trading, Leo Xu Projects (Shanghai, 2017); Remnants of an Electronic Past, CFCCA (Manchester, 2016) etc.
Selected group exhibitions include: Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008, Tai Kwun (Hong Kong 2025); Global Fascism, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin，2025) ; AI,As Seen at the End of Ownership, times museum,(Guangdong，2025); Topologies of the Real Techne 2025, MICA Art Museum Gallery 3&4 (Hunan，2025);目 Chine Une nouvelle génération d'artistes, Centre Pompidou, (Paris, 2024); NUWORLDS, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Australia, 2024); MULTIPLY!!!: Power in Numbers in Contemporary Chinese Art, Modern Art Museum (Shanghai, 2024);Bordercrossing, Possibilities and Interactions, Yuz Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Topologies of the Real: Techne, Shenzhen, Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (Shenzhen, 2023); Symphony of All the Changes: The 7th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art （Guangzhou, 2023); Cloud Walkers, Leeum Museum of Art (Seoul, 2022); Forming Communities: Berliner Wege, KINDL (Berlin, 2022); NADA Miami 2022 Art Fair, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Miami, 2022); Boomerang: OCAT Biennale, OCAT Shenzhen (Shenzhen, 2021); The Return of Guests - Selections from the PSA Collection, Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Afterimage: Dangdai Yishu, Lisson Gallery (London, 2019); Art in the Age of the Internet: 1989 to Today, The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, 2018); Love Love Love, Today Art Museum (Beijing, 2018); Ethics of Technology, Beijing Media Art Biennale (Beijing, 2016)
In 2023 and 2024, aaajiao's work was collected by the Pompidou Center in France. In 2014, he not only won the 3rd Art Sanya Awards Jury Prize, but also was shortlisted for the 1st OCAT Pierre Huber Prize.
RELATED EXHIBITIONS Pinky Swear, Solo show, Tabula Rasa London, Oct 2025
Contemporary Myths and Artifacts, Stockholm, November 2023
NADA Miami 2022, Group show
LISTE 2022, Solo show
Deep Simulator, Solo show, Tabula Rasa London, June 2021
URL IS LOVE, Group show, Tabula Rasa online, September 2020
PRESS
OCULA, Conversation, 2021.06
ART HUB ASIA, CONVERSATION, 2019.01
FAD MAGAZIN, REVIEW, 2018.10
ART ASIA PACIFIC, REVIEW, 2017.01
Download artist’s CV
aaajiao’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, His recent solo exhibitions include: Pinky Swear, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2025); A bit A prompt, SETAREH (Berlin, 2024); membrane, Star Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Diaspora as History, Liste with Tabula Rasa Gallery (Basel, 2022); I was dead on the Internet, Wannsee Contemporary (Berlin, 2022); I was dead on the Internet, Lianhua Apartment (Shanghai, 2021); Deep Simulator, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2021); Deep Simulator, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2020) ; URL is LOVE - A Digital Retrospective, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2020); Cave Simulator, Aike (Shanghai, 2020); a’a’a’jiao: an ID, HOW Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); bot, House of Egorn (Berlin, 2018); Gluttony, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space (Chengdu, 2018); User, Love, High-frequency Trading, Leo Xu Projects (Shanghai, 2017); Remnants of an Electronic Past, CFCCA (Manchester, 2016) etc.
Selected group exhibitions include: Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008, Tai Kwun (Hong Kong 2025); Global Fascism, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin，2025) ; AI,As Seen at the End of Ownership, times museum,(Guangdong，2025); Topologies of the Real Techne 2025, MICA Art Museum Gallery 3&4 (Hunan，2025);目 Chine Une nouvelle génération d'artistes, Centre Pompidou, (Paris, 2024); NUWORLDS, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Australia, 2024); MULTIPLY!!!: Power in Numbers in Contemporary Chinese Art, Modern Art Museum (Shanghai, 2024);Bordercrossing, Possibilities and Interactions, Yuz Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Topologies of the Real: Techne, Shenzhen, Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (Shenzhen, 2023); Symphony of All the Changes: The 7th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art （Guangzhou, 2023); Cloud Walkers, Leeum Museum of Art (Seoul, 2022); Forming Communities: Berliner Wege, KINDL (Berlin, 2022); NADA Miami 2022 Art Fair, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Miami, 2022); Boomerang: OCAT Biennale, OCAT Shenzhen (Shenzhen, 2021); The Return of Guests - Selections from the PSA Collection, Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Afterimage: Dangdai Yishu, Lisson Gallery (London, 2019); Art in the Age of the Internet: 1989 to Today, The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, 2018); Love Love Love, Today Art Museum (Beijing, 2018); Ethics of Technology, Beijing Media Art Biennale (Beijing, 2016)
In 2023 and 2024, aaajiao's work was collected by the Pompidou Center in France. In 2014, he not only won the 3rd Art Sanya Awards Jury Prize, but also was shortlisted for the 1st OCAT Pierre Huber Prize.
RELATED EXHIBITIONS Pinky Swear, Solo show, Tabula Rasa London, Oct 2025
Contemporary Myths and Artifacts, Stockholm, November 2023
NADA Miami 2022, Group show
LISTE 2022, Solo show
Deep Simulator, Solo show, Tabula Rasa London, June 2021
URL IS LOVE, Group show, Tabula Rasa online, September 2020
PRESS
OCULA, Conversation, 2021.06
ART HUB ASIA, CONVERSATION, 2019.01
FAD MAGAZIN, REVIEW, 2018.10
ART ASIA PACIFIC, REVIEW, 2017.01
Download artist’s CV
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N1 6AQ
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