ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI

zhaorenhui_Self
N a m e : ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI

Born & Lives

1983 Born in Singapore
Lives and works in Singapore

Education

2010 Masters (with Distinction) in Photography, Graduate Scolarship Program, London College of Communication, London, UK
2006 - 2008 BA in Photography, Camberwell College of the Arts, University of the Arts, London, UK

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022 The Forest Institute, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
2020 Robert Zhao Renhui: The Lines We Draw, ShanghART Singapore, Singapore
2019 The Lines We Draw, Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China
New Forest, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore
HUGO BOSS ASIA ART 2017, BOSS Store Ngee Ann City, Singapore
2017 Christmas Island, Naturally, ShanghART M50, Shanghai, China
The Nature Museum, commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts, 72-13, Singapore
Christmas Island, Naturally, ShangART Singapore, Singapore
The Bizarre Honour, Chip Bee Gardens, Singapore
Singapore, Very Old Tree, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
2016 The Natural History of an Island, DECK, Singapore
2015 A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World, Centre of Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
The tree that fell, The Substation, Singapore
The Nature Collector, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, China
2014 Flies Prefer Yellow, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, California, USA
Fake or Reality, Galarie Anzenberger, Vienna, Austria
A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy
The Last Thing You See, 2902 Gallery, Singapore
2012 The Institute of Critical Zoologists, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK
Living Proof, Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2011 The Land Archive, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
2010 The Whiteness of Whales, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
2009 If a tree falls in the forest, The Substation, Singapore

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022 Cuttings, Mizuma Art Gallery, Singapore
Silent Spring, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin, Germany
The Natural History of an Island, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, China
Free Jazz IV. Geomancers, NTU CCA, Singapore
Rediscovering Lost Connections, Silvana S Foundation, JADA Art Gallery, Singapore
Bukit Panjang Tourism Board, a project by Adeline Chia and Robert Zhao, Greenridge Shopping Centre, #02-13, Singapore
2021 Chengdu Biennale, Super Fusion, Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu
Posthuman Ensemble, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea
A Show About Nothing, BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, China
The New Cosmos of Photography Tokyo Exhibition 2021, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
What a caterpillar calls the end, the world calls a butterfly, Field Studies, Singapore
Tonight the Air is Warm, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Interspecies Futures, Center for Book Arts, New York, United States
ANTHROPOLOGY OF ICE, Fotograf Festival 11, Fotograf Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
The Gift, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2020 From the Mundane World, Launch Exhibition of He Art Museum, He Art Museum, Guangdong
In The Forest, Even The Air Breathes, GAMeC Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy
Busan Biennale: Words at an Exhibition, an exhibition in ten chapters and five poems, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, South Korea
Meditations in an Emergency, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
The Seeds We Sow, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
2019 Winter Exhibition, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing
2219: Futures Imagined, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
Singapore Biennale 2019, Every Step in the Right Direction, Gillman Barracks, Singapore
Observe, Experiment, Archive, Sunderland Museum and Winter Garden, London, United Kingdom
Season 3, Orange County Museum of Art, California, USA
The Time Tree, Fort Canning Park, Singapore
Quasi-Nature: Bio Art, Borderline and Laboratory, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, China
An Opera for Animals, 
Para Site
, Hong Kong, and Rockbound Art Musuem, Shanghai, China
Civilization: The Way We Live Now, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2018 The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9), The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
Post-Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem: Taipei Biennial 2018, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
From the Archives, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
Two houses: Politics and histories in the contemporary art collections of John Chia and Yeap Lam Yang, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, Singapore
Present Future, Supernormal, Singapore
Fotofestiwal 2018, Art_Inkubator, Łódź, Poland
Starting from the Desert. Ecologies on the Edge: 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China
PhotoESPAÑA, Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid, Spain
The 5th Onassis Fast Forward Festival, 15 Derigny St., Athens, Greece
OH! Emerald Hill, OH! Open House, Singapore
2017 Jakarta Biennale 2017, Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, Indonesia
HUGO BOSS ASIA ART 2017, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
7th Moscow Biennale: “Clouds ⇄ Forests”, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Children's Biennale: Dreams & Stories, National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore
Traces of the Future: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
SUPER/NATURAL, Gajah Gallery, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
On Sharks and Humanity, Parkview Museum, Singapore
Chobi Mela IX, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2016 Singapore International Photography Festival: The Archive as Conversation, National Library, Singapore
Why are we doing what we are doing ?, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Prudential Eye Awards Exhibition 2016, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2015 No Boundary: An Exhibition featuring Singaporean Artists, ShanghART Gallery, Singapore
What it is about when it is about nothing, Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
Arles Discover Award Exhibition, Arles, France
2014 Signature Art Prize, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
The Origin of Beauty: Dramatic Nostalgia, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea
Ocean of possibilities, Noorderlicht Festival of Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Going, Going until I Meet the Tide, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
Origins, Memories & Parodies, Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, South Korea
Mapping Asia, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Truths, Facts, Fictions, Lies, PhotoIreland, Ireland
A time of dreams, Moscow International Biennale of Young Art, Moscow, Russia
Landscape: the virtual, the actual, the possible?, Times Museum, Guangdong, China
Grandprix Fotofestiwal, Poland
Unearthed, S​ingapore Art Museum, Singapore
Ghost Nature, Gallery 400, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinoi, USA
Projections Animalieres, La Box, Bourges at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art, Bourges, France
The Land Archive, 24/7, Sculpture Square, Singapore
Do you believe in Angels?, MO_Space, Manila, Philippines
2013 If the World Changed, Singapore Biennale, Peranakan Museum, Singapore
Photoquai 4, Museum de Branly, Paris, France
Novel Ecologies, Cross Art Projects, Sydney, Australia
The Artist, The Book and the Crowd, The Substation, Singapore
Living in the ruins of the 20th Century,​ University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
International Festival of Photography, Mineiro Museum, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
The Realm In The Mirror, The Vision out of Image, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China
Engaging Perspectives, New Art From Singapore, Centre of Contemporary Art, Singapore
President’s Young Talent Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Edit, Image Phobia and Fetish, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, China
Earth Works, PPOW Gallery, New York City, New York, USA
Adapting to the Anthropocene, UNESCO House, Paris, France
Going where, ShanghART Gallery, Singapore
Encounter: The Royal Academy in Asia, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Beast Bloom for Thee, Galeri Canna, Jakarta, Indonesia
Between Conversations, Yavuz Fine Art, Singapore
2012 Terra Cognita, Noorderlitcht Festival of Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands
FutureMap, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
Future­Proof, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Hijacked III, Contemporary Photography from the UK and Australia, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia
2011 We who saw signs, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Territories of the real and unreal, Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Animal Talk, Jendela, Singapore
Right Here, Right Now, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
Not too far away, 2902 Gallery, Singapore
2010 “Haven’t You Heard?”, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
When Species Meet: A gaze that is non­human, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Emerging Wave, GoEun Museum of Photography, Busan, South Korea
Art & The Law, M1 Fringe Festival, Jendela Gallery, Singapore
Cut 2010: New Photography from Southeast Asia, Parallel Universe, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Singapore
2009 A touch of violence, National Gallery of Arts, Tirane, Albania
Photocinema, Format International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
2008 We decided to go to the zoo but it was raining, Photo­Levallois Festival, Paris, France

Awards

2021 Excellence Award, New Cosmos of Photography 2021, Tokyo, Japan
2019 Finalist, 12th Benesse Prize, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2017 Finalist, HUGO BOSS ASIA ART 2017, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2016 Nominee, Prudential Eye Awards
2014 Finalist, APB Foundation Signature Art Prize, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2011 Deutsche Bank Award In Photography, University of the Arts, London, UK
2010 Young Artist Award, Singapore
2009 Arts Creation Fund, National Arts Council, Singapore
United Overseas Bank Prize, Painting of the Year Award, Singapore
2008 Honourable Mention, Photo­Levallois Festival, Paris, France

Museum Collections

National Museum of Singapore, Singapore
UBS Art Collection, UBS Global
Statoil Art Collection, Stavanger, Norway
Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, U.S.A
UOB Art Collection, Singapore
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

Publication

2014 Altered Realities Robert Zhao, Katarzyna Majak, Archivo
The Origin of Invented Species Robert Zhao Renhui, Profiles by Sylvia Tsai, ArtAsiaPacific
2013 Enough Room to Fall, President’s Young Talents, catalogue, Tan Siuli
Speculative Everything, Aesthetics of Unreality, book, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, MIT Press
Misrepresented, The Design Society Journal No.6
Art Cities of the Future, book, Phaidon Press
Contemporary Photography in Asia, book, Prestel Publishing
Zhao Renhui: A Photographer’s Obsession with Animals, The Muse
2012 Art Forum, Openings, Essay by Jeffrey Kastner
Nature, Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel, book, MIT Press
LAND Journal, Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore
Asian Art News, March/April, Exploring Artifice and Context, Interview by Steven Pettifor
Punctum, Issue 3, Essay by Lisa Botos
2011 Fotografia, Zhao Renhui, Essay by Katarzyna Perlak
2010 NY Arts, New York, Summer 2010, Voices, Artist’s Interview
Public art, Korea : June, Issue 045
Cabinet, Issue 38, Pulau Pejantan
The Straits Time, Life!Arts, Interview, The Japanese side of whaling, August 07
Art Forum, Best of 2010, December, Selected by Pauline J.Yao
2009 Extra 03, Feature, Antwerp FotoMuseum, The Zoo as Cinema
Portfolio Magazine, Contemporary Photography in Britain, Cover and feature, Issue 49
2008 L’oeil de la Photographie, France, Nov, Image of the Month

Residencies

2017 NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore
2014 Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, California, USA
2013 Earth Observatory of Singapore, Singapore
2012 National Museum of Wales, Residency by Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK
Langgeng Arts Foundation, Residency on Dutch Colonial Archives
2011 Bangkok University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
The Arctic Circle Residency
Ffotogallery, Penarth, UK
2010 Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

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