【CURRENTLY EDITING】
Work
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ài,ái 愛,癌
- A Study of Wood 木的研究
- Polaroid Diary 寶麗來日記
- The Stranded Whale 擱淺的鯨魚
- Queer Propoganda Poster 酷兒海報
- 三炷香
- Selected Commissions - 甦 Sū Studio
Writings
CV
【CURRENTLY EDITING】
Work
Writings
CV
Index
Image Credit: Ce Xu, Ph.D.
Yao’s research examines the visual politics of medical imagery and its use in contemporary art. Working across art history and the medical humanities, he studies how clinical photography and diagnostic imaging establish the body as an object of knowledge. His writing examines the assumptions of transparency and objectivity that authorize the clinical gaze, with attention to how diagnostic conventions can reduce embodied experience to visible pathology. Through close readings of artworks that use X-rays and endoscopic footage, he considers how artists question medical authority and expose the distance between clinical evidence and the experience of illness. His photographic and archival practice extends these questions to cancer and familial care, asking who has the authority to represent illness and how its personal histories are preserved.
His current research on contemporary Chinese photography draws on queer Marxism to examine the relationship between sexual politics and the material conditions of photographic production. He considers how class relations and the commodification of difference shape queer self-representation in post-socialist China. His work addresses the pressures on Chinese photographers to perform cultural authenticity for Western art institutions and international editorial markets. He asks how these expectations constrain authorship and how photographers negotiate them in relation to Chinese visual traditions. His research on fashion visual culture examines how photographic images construct class aspiration and shape representations of Chineseness within global luxury markets. His interest in “Chinese dreamcore” situates its retro aesthetics within the uneven temporalities of this development, focusing on vernacular photographs and early digital imagery from the 2000s, especially the period of accelerated economic transformation following the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He examines how images once saturated with developmental optimism acquire an affective afterlife as the everyday environments they depict are transformed or disappear. These visual archives register a tension between the futures once imagined through economic prosperity and the collective memories formed around their material remnants. His attention to loss and memory is grounded in a sincere love for the ordinary lives and places that remain emotionally present through images, even as their historical conditions recede. His developing research on documentary photography of Chinese indie rock from the late 1990s onward examines how photographic archives transmit the social histories of independent music scenes as the cultural spaces that sustained them change or disappear.
As Artist, Yao’s fashion editorials have appeared in Vogue, ELLE, Grazia China, and other publications. His artwork has been exhibited or supported by institutions including WhiteBox New York, Harvard University, Visual AIDS, the Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Research Areas: Visual Politics; History and Theory of Photography (Chinese Contemporary Photography, Post-socialism); Fashion Media and Visual Culture; Queer Marxism; Internationalism; Medical Humanities and Art, History of Chinese indie rock
Rice University
Houston, TX
2026-Present
Master of Science (M.S.) in Media, Medicine, and Health
Harvard Medical School - Harvard University
Boston, MA
2025-2026
Master of Arts (M.A.) in Arts Politics
New York University Tisch School of the Arts
New York City, NY
2024-2025
Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), with Honors in Photography; Minor in Fashion Communication
Parsons School of Design - The New School
New York City, NY
2021-2024
United World College Changshu China
Suzhou, People’s Republic of China
2018-2020
The Languages Department - Schools of Public Engagement, The New School
New York City, NY
Fall 2023-Spring 2024
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University
24 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA
2026 March
2025 Annual Exhibition,
Harvard University GSD Kirkland Gallery
40 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA
2025 October
MoDA bi-annual Group Exhibition Summer 2025 “Love”
MoDA Gallery
227 E 24th St, New York City, NY
2025 June
GreenBox @Le Petit Versailles:A Vision for the Future in Present Tense
White Box Gallery
New York City, NY
Curated by Juan Puntes, Asst Curator Kaylie Pykkonen
2025 May
Parsons BFA Photography Thesis Exhibition
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery
66 5th Avenue, New York City, NY
2024 April
Visual Aids Postcards from the Edge
Berry Campbell Gallery
524 W 26th St, New York City, NY
2024 January
International Baccalaureate® Visual Arts Higher Level Thesis Exhibition
United World College Changshu China Art Gallery
Suzhou, People’s Republic of China (Curated by Enra Huang)
2020 May
Global Chinese Teens Photography Contest Exhibition
Shanghai Center of Photography (SCôP)
Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
2019 October
Parsons School of Design - The New School
2021-2024
Runner-Up (Documentary Photography Category); SCôP Global Chinese Teens Photography Contest
Harvard College Association for U.S.-China Relations, Harvard University & SCôP Shanghai Center of Photography
2019
Last Updated August 2026