Shuyi Cao is a New York–based artist whose practice spans sculpture, film, and installation. Rooted in alchemical approaches to material and knowledge osmosis, Cao’s work unfolds through speculative archaeology and ecological fiction. Working with fragments that have already lived many lives, she assembles materials into a dispersed ecology shaped by both human and planetary metabolism.
Shuyi’s work has been exhibited internationally, including recent solo shows at Surplus Space, Wuhan (2026); Gathering, London (2025); Island Gallery (2024); 11th Biennale nationale de sculpture contemporaine, Quebec (2024); duo exhibitions at UCCA Clay Museum, Yixing (2025); Para Site, Hong Kong (2023); and group exhibitions at Orange County Museum of Art, California; Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris; Uffner & Liu, New York; He Art Museum, Foshan; Aranya Art Centre, Beidaihe; Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai; Today Art Museum, Beijing; NARS Foundation, New York; A.I.R. Gallery, New York, among others. She is currently a visiting professor at Pratt Institute and visiting artist at Cornell University. She has held positions as artist-in-residence at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMOCA), New Museum NEW INC, Banff Centre for the Art, Guangdong Times Museum, Power Station of Art Shanghai. She received a Bachelor of Laws (2013), an M.A. in Public Administration from Fudan University in Shanghai (2016), and an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York (2018).
She is currently a visiting professor at Pratt Institute, and a selected artist for Backslash, Cornell University’s art and technology initiative.
