Zishi Han
b. 1990
Lives and works in Frankfurt, DE

ARTIST STATEMENT

With a focus on installation, Zishi Han’s practice encompasses a range of media, including sculpture, video, and performance. Growing up in Beijing and spending time in London and Frankfurt, Han has been observing the mega-scale architectural environment where power structures have been solidified in their physicality. Often informed by research into transcultural figures, artefacts and events, Han constructs orchestrated apparatuses that enable densely layered spatial experiences.

At first glimpse, Han’s structures and objects are rigid and imposing, alluding to a masochistic attachment to power structures. However, their mechanisms are exposed, and structures are fragile and delicate. Han is drawn to things that hold and let through, such as containers, vessels, pipes, ducts and channels, and their zoomorphic and anthropomorphic qualities as shells, skins and veins. He explores how their forms have the potential to dismantle previous relations to incubate unexplored desires.

EDUCATION

2018 – 2024

Fine Arts, Städelschule

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2012 – 2014

MA Design, Royal College of Art

London, UK

2008 – 2012

BEng Vehicle Engineering

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

2025
E.A.T PRIZE
China

2024
Gargonza Arts Award
Germany

Solo Award 2024
Charlottenborg Forårsudestilling
Denmar

2023
Nominee,
The Federal Prize for Art Students,
Germany

2022
Nominee,
Dangxia Young Artist Award

PUBLICATIONS & CATALOGUE

2024
'The Call: Absolvent*innenausstellung 2024’,
Städelschule, Germany

2023
'Pickle Bar Presents',
West Den Haag,
Netherlands

‘Hairpin Beneath’,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2022
‘Touch Release’,
Printer Fault Press,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2021
‘Antonio’s Dream: A Journey Through Art and Textile’
Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Italy

2019
‘How to begin’,
Compagnia, London, UK

RESIDENCIES
2025
forthcoming
The Danish Art Workshops (SVFK)
Copenhagen, Danmark
Asian Art Archive in America
New York, US
2024
Gargonza Arts Scholarship Residency
Tuscany, Italy

2018

XXIV CSAV – Artists Research Laboratory with Christina Mackie
Fondazione Antonio Ratti
Como, Italy

SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS

2025

forthcoming

Politikens Forhal

Copenhagen, Denmark

forthcoming

BROWNIE Project

Shanghai, China

Sculpture Center

New York City, US

2023

uncontain

saasfee*pavillon

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2021

imagines

MEWO Kunsthalle

Memmingen, Germany

SELECT EVENTS,
PERFORMANCES & SCREENINGS

2025
Quivering BloomStichting Perdu
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2024

Hairpin beneath

TROPEZ
Berlin, Germany

Kunstraum MEMPHIS
Linz, Austria

Pols
Valencia, Spain

West Den Haag
Den Haag, Netherlands

2023

Tearoom Relay – Pit Stop
Delfina Foundation
London, UK

Thank you!
Pickle Bar
Berlin, Germany

2021

Slow Signal
Korean Pavilion
Venice Architecture Biennale
Venice, Italy

2018

Open Screenings
Whitechapel Gallery
London, UK

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
San Dian Shui
Tofu Collective
Copenhagen, Denmark

Seeing in the Dark
Busan Biennale 2024
South Korea

The Call: Absolvent*innenausstellung 2024
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Copenhagen, Denmark

2023

On the Foothills - Reflection
Rinde am Rhein
Düsseldorf, Germany

Atlas of Affinities: Vol.2, Scores for Movement
Hua International
Beijing, China

2022

‘Dwelling on the Cloud’
Ugly Duck
London, UK 2022

‘Atlas of Affinities: Vol.1, The Far-Near’,
Hua International
Berlin, Germany

2021

Touch Release
Nassauischer Kunstverein
Wiesbaden, Germany

Antonio’s Dream: A Journey Through Art and Textile
Fondazione Antonio Ratti
Como, Italy

Pleasure, Torture, Structure
Jo-Anne,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2020

Moving Plants
Palmengarten
Frankfurt, Germany

2018

Laboratorio Aperto
asilo Sant’ Elia, Fondazione Antonio Ratti,
Como, Italy

COLLECTIVE
LONG-TERM PROJECTS

2024
Project space ‘Temple’
Offenbach am Main, Germany

2022
Performance gathering ‘TeaRoom Relay’

2019 - 2023
Garden Group at Städelschule
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2020 - 2021
Project space ‘Jo-Anne’
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2017 - 2018
Curatorial collective ‘Stir Fry Papaya’
London, UK