Xiaoyu Weng (sh-ih-ow-y-uu w-eh-ng) is a Shanghai born and New York based writer and curator. Taking an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, her practice focuses on the impact of globalization, the convergence of art, science, and technology, and emerging ecological and environmental transformations through the lens of feminism, identity, and decolonization. In close collaborations with artists, researchers and philosophers, her work creates syncretic and hybrid contexts and platforms to foreground their practices. With extensive knowledge of the international art scene and a keen sense of new discourses in contemporary art, she has a track record of organizing groundbreaking and trend-making programs that push the boundaries of traditional artistic genre. From institutional positions to independent projects, Weng has worked with over 300 artists and practitioners, collaborated with over 50 organizations to organize exhibitions and programs across all continents, and written and published numerous essays on contemporary art, visual culture, and curatorial practice.
Most recently, Weng held position as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and head of the department at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, Canada. Previously, she was The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. At the Guggenheim, Weng curated highly acclaimed exhibitions Tales of Our Time (2016–17) and One Hand Clapping (2018). Featuring newly commissioned artworks by thirteen artists and artist collectives, the exhibitions challenge myths of identity and nation-state constructions. She also curated artist Christian Nyampeta’s first solo museum presentation in North America Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful in 2021.
In 2018-2019, Weng served as the curator of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The biennial was awarded the “Best Exhibition of the Year” by the Art Newspaper Russia. Unfolding around the theme of “Immortality,” the Biennial critiques modern technology’s hegemonic agenda and postulates a multitude of futures. Working through the lenses of industrial legacy and decay, labor conditions, and indigenous cosmologies, the award-winning Biennial examines technology’s relationship with time, history writing, and humanity.
Weng was the director and curator of Asia Programs at Kadist Art Foundation (Paris/San Francisco, 2010-2015). She continues to serve as a program and collection advisor for the Foundation.
In 2022, Weng was a finalist for the curatorship of the 13th edition of the Berlin Biennale. Her other recent projects include Miriam Cahn and Claudia Martínez Garay: Ten Thousand Things at Sifang Art Museu, Nanjing, China (2020); Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman at Times Art Center Berlin, Germany (2019); and Soft Crash at Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy (2016), among others. Weng was the winner of the eighth edition of Premio Lorenzo Bonald per L’arte Enterprize for international curators in 2015 and a recipient of Asian Cultural Council’s (New York) prestigious Starr Foundation Fellowship (2007-2009). Weng received her BA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and her MA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
