Sheung Yiu 姚尚勤
Visual Artist & Researcher
Sheung Yiu (born 1991, Hong Kong) is an image-centered artist and researcher, based in Helsinki. In his research-based practice, Yiu collaborates with multi-disciplinary experts to explore imaging practices emerging at the intersection of photography and large-scale computation. Through his dialogue with remote sensing scientists, he learned how to see the Earth from satellites. At the moment, he is looking at the history of face reading and facial recognition to understand how photographs become predictions. His works take the form of photography, video essays, desktop performance, exhibition installations, and artist books. He is a doctoral researcher in photography at Aalto University. He is selected as a FOAM Talent 2024 and a member of FUTURES. His work has been exhibited internationally at the Hasselblad Foundation in Sweden, Taikwun Contemporary in Hong Kong, and the Circulation(s) Festival in France.
Sheung Yiu (1991, Hong Kong) on kuvataiteilija ja tohtoritutkija Helsingistä. Hänen kiinnostuksenaan on tietokonevalokuvauksen lisääntyvä monimutkaisuus ja toimijuus nykyajan digitaalisessa kulttuurissa. Hän pyrkii laajentamaan sen ontologiaa muotoilemalla yhteyksiä valokuvauksen teorioiden ja uusien realismin muotojen, olio-ontologian ja verkostoajattelun välillä. Taiteelliseen työskentelyyn ja monitieteiseen yhteistyöhön pohjautuvassa tutkimuksessaan hän tarkastelee teoksissaan laskennallisen tietokonevalokuvauksen poetiikkaa ja politiikkaa, kuten tietokonenäköä, tietokonegrafiikkaa ja etäaistimuksia. Yiun teokset ovat valokuvia, videoita, valokuvaobjekteja, näyttelyinstallaatioita ja kirjoja.
Upcoming Exhibition
2026 ‘(Inter)Faces of Predictions’, C/O Berlin Talent Award 2025 Exhibition, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany
‘The Ouroboros of Faces’, NOUA, Bodø, Norway
Solo Exhibitions
2024 ‘Everything is a Projection’, 25 Jan - 31 Mar 2024, WMA Space, Hong Kong
‘Between Two Trees, There Are Many Worlds’, 13 Sept 2024 - 13 Oct 2024, Galleri Format, Sweden
2023 ‘The Poetics of Science’, 22 Apr - 21 May 2023, NOUA, Bodø, Norway
2022 ‘Common Objects in Context’, 5 - 28 Aug 2022, Hippolyte Gallery. Helsinki, Finland.
‘How To See Something Where There Is Nothing’, 25 Mar - 17 Apr 2022, Titanik Gallery, Turku, Finland.
‘Ground Truth, or How To Resurrect A Tree’, 2 Feb 2022 - 20 Feb 2022, MAA-tila Project Space, Helsinki, Finland.
‘Sheung Yiu: Ground Truth, or How To Resurrect A Tree’, 8 Dec 2021 - 16 Jan 2022, Mai Manó Ház, Budapest, Hungary.
2020 ‘The Twinkling of an Eye’, 3-26 Jan 2020. Hippolyte Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
2018 ‘Look Like Science’. 15 Jan - 26 Jan 2018. NODE Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
Selected Exhibitions
2025 ‘The Alephs’, 23 -24 November 2025, Freezer Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina
‘Talk Together’, 3 - 12 October 2025, Fotograf Zone, Prague, Czech Republic
‘Coexistence’, 12 - 21 September 2025, The Jakarta International Photo Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia
‘Bugs and Metamorphosis’ 13 June - 7 Sept 2025, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
’Faces of Predictions, or How to Read a Face' 9 - 22 June, 2025, Riga Photography Biennale
‘Tales They Don’t Tell You’ 15 May - 29 June, 2025, Bienal'25 Porto Photography Biennale, Rectory of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
‘FOAM Talent 2024’ 28 March - 17 August 2025, Deutsche Börse AG, The Cube, Frankfurt, Germany
‘Bugs and Metamorphosis’ 8 February - 4 May 2025, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden
2024 ‘Ties That Bind’ 26 Sept 2024 - 3 Nov 2024, Organ Vida Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
’Grow it, show it!’ 13 Sept 2024 – 12 Jan 2025, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
‘BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair’ 30 Aug - 1 Sept 2024, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
‘FOAM Talent 2024-2025’, 23 Feb - 22 May 2024, FOAM Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
‘If Light Gives Us Knowledge, Bacteria Give Us Memories’, 15 May – 2 Jun 2024, Gallery Uusi Kipinä, Lahti, Finland
‘HAIHATUS25: Haihatus Art Centre’s 25th Anniversary Summer Exhibition’, 15 Jun – 25 Aug 2024, Haihatus Art Centre, Juotsa, Finland
‘Booked 2024’ 11-26 May 2024, MUU Contemporary Art Center, Helsinki, Finland
2023 ‘Systems’, 29 Sept - 3 Dec 2023, Artsi Museum, Vantaa, Finland
‘INDEX NATURAE’, Omne Festival, 22 Sept - 30 Oct 2023, Bologna, Italy
‘Ground Truth, or How To Resurrect a Tree’, 6 Sept - 6 Oct 2023, Aalto University, Finland
‘Index’, Fotobokfestival Oslo, 31 Aug - 10 Sept 2023, Gamle Munch, Oslo, Norway
Mäntän äärellä, 2-30 Jul 2023, Mänttä, Finland
FORMAT23 Festival, 16 Mar 2023 - 9 Apr 2023, Derby, The UK
‘Booked’ in Supermarket, 11-14 May 2023, Stockholm, Sweden
2022 ‘Photobook Award 2021’, 10 Dec 2022 - 19 Feb 2023, PhotoNorth The Northern Photographic Center. Oulu, Finland.
‘Ground Truth’, 16 Sep 2022 - 30 Oct 2022, Singapore International Photography Festival. Singapore.
‘New North, New Perspectives’, 10 Sept 2022 - 16 Oct 2022, PhotoNorth The Northern Photographic Center. Oulu, Finland.
Athens Photo Festival. 8 June - 24 July 2022, Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, Athens, Greece.
Circulation(s) Festival 12th Edition, 2 April - 29 May 2022, Le CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Paris, France.
2021 PERCEIVING LANDSCAPE(S), 16 - 30 Nov 2021, KORAI Project Space, Nicosia, Cyprus.
X-disciplinary Congress, Oct 2021. Atletika Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania. (video documentation)
Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June, Oct 2021. Third Space, Helsinki, Finland.
Genesis: Discovery Award 2021 Projection. 17 Sept - 31 Oct 2021. Encontros Da Imagem, Braga, Portugal.
SOFT images, 2 Sept - 5 Sept 2021. FotoTallinn, Kai Art Center, Tallinn, Estonia.
First International Festival of Manuports, 12 August - 10 October 2021. Kohta, Helsinki, Finland.
The Makeable Minds. 7 Aug - 28 Nov 2021, Noordelicht Festival, Groningen and Friesland, The Netherlands.
Temporary Bookshelf. 2020 - now, Kosminen Gallery, Helsinki, Finland.
2020 Related Realities. 4 Sept - 8 Nov 2020. Backlight Festival 2020, Tampere, Finland.
Not to Sing Like a City Bird Sings. June 2020. Pori Biennale, Online, Finland.
H_st_rical Narratives. 12-14 Jun 2020. Shelter Festival (Suoja), Online, Finland.
2019 What Are We Now? 14 Mar - 02 Apr 2019. Beta Gallery, Espoo, Finland.
The Stars Look So Different Tonight. 29 Jan - 2 Mar 2019, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria.
2018 Performative Measurements. 25 Oct 2018 - 14 Nov 2018. Hong Kong International Photo Festival, Hong Kong.
Infinite Sauvage. 4 Aug - 9 Sept 2018. International Summer School of Photography 2018, Latvia.
Simultaneous Eidos. 15 Dec 2017 - 8 Mar 2018. Guangzhou Image Triennial, Guangzhou, China.
2017 NTU IPA Winner Showcase. 2017. ADM Gallery, Singapore.
2016 FAUX. 1-30 Apr 2016. The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, US.
Presentations
2025 ‘FUTURES x Magnum Artist Spotlight: Sheung Yiu’
Artist talk at Magnum Learn, organized by Magnum Photos and FUTURES, Online
‘Bugs & Metamorphosis – Performance evening’
Skogen, Gothenburg, Sweden
‘I Asked the Magical Machine’, Symposium: Politics of Presence: Networked Bodies and Algorithmic Visibility
Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany
‘How To See Something Where There Is Nothing’, Symposium: Performativity, Memory, and Imagination of Technical Images
The Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS), Lüneburg, Germany
2024 ‘Hair it is!’
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
‘How To Spot A Tree From A Pixel’
BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
‘Hyperimage: Imaging Practices on a Larger-Than-Human Scale’
Helsinki Photomedia Conference 2024, Aalto University, Finland
‘To Catch a Fish in a Digital Sea’, Desktop Lecture Performance’
WMA Space, Hong Kong
Exchange Circle: Unveiling the Digital Canvas
Hong Kong Art Basel, Hong Kong
Ground Truth, or the Ouroboros of Photography and Data
Goethe Institut, Hong Kong
Meet the Foam Talents
FOAM Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2023 ’Re-visioning the forest off-the-human-scale: A photograph, a satellite image, a 3D point cloud,’
Art of Research Conference 2023, Aalto University, Finland
Collective book signing talk Across the Connection,
Unseen Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Panel Discussion and Book Launch: Everything is a Projection,
Utopias Festival, Lahti, Finland
2022 Spotting A Tree From A Pixel – Ground Truth and Posthuman Visions
Expanded Visualities: Photography and Emerging Technologies (6th International Conference of Photography and Theory),
organized by the International Association of Photography and Theory, Cyprus
Levels of Life: Photography, Imaging and the Vertical Perspective
London College of Communication, The Photographers’ Gallery, and The Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London
South Bank University, The United Kingdom
Screen Walk with Sheung Yiu
The Photographer’s Gallery & Fotomuseum Winterthur (presentation link), Online
Research Workshop 2022: Rendering Research
Transmediale, Online
2021 X-disciplinary Congress
Oct 2021. Atletika Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania. (video documentation)
2019 Plat(t)form
13th Cycle Artist, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Writings
2025 ‘Facial Linguistics: What Your Faces Tell About You and How We Talk About Faces’,
in Virtual Hallucinations (Körperbilder in Bewegung), Exhibition Catalogue for DeichtorHallen
‘It’s a Face-eat-face World’,
in Unthinking Photography for The Photographers’ Gallery
2024 ‘Spotting a Tree from a Pixel: A Creator’s Statement’,
Interfaces, 50, 2024, Re-Scale: The Art and Culture of Size and Scale <https://doi.org/10.4000/interfaces.7343>
‘Our Bodies Protest on Our Behalf: A Review of “Laia Abril – On Mass Hysteria’
(Exhibition Review)
NO NIIN Magazine, 24, 2024
‘Radical Re-imagining of Visual Order Amid the Ongoing Genocide of Palestinians: A Review of ‘Against Abstraction’
(Exhibition Review)
NO NIIN Magazine, 25, 2024
2022 ‘Spotting A Tree From A Pixel (With Remote Sensing Researchers)’,
Journal for Artistic Research, 28, 2022 <https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1265334>
‘One Face, Millions of Faces: Computer Vision as Hyperobject’,
Philosophy of Photography, 12.1 (2021), 71–91 <https://doi.org/10.1386/pop_00048_1>
‘Excerpts from Everything Is a Projection (2020–Present): Digital Photography and 3D Photogrammetry’
Philosophy of Photography, 12.1 (2021), 149–60 <https://doi.org/10.1386/pop_00055_7>
‘Hyperimage Index: Rendering Research on Algorithmic Image Systems’,
A Peer-Reviewed Journal About, 11.1 (2022), 66–81 <https://doi.org/10.7146/aprja.v11i1.134309>
Awards & Residencies
2025 C/O Berlin Talent Award 2025, C/O Berlin
Best Book Design From All Over The World, Silver Medal, Stiftung Buchkunst
Nordiska residency with Sheung Yiu and Hagren/Bela, The Nordic Art Association (NKF)
2024 The Most Beautiful Book in Finland 2023, Finalist, The Finnish Book Art Committee
Best Dutch Book Design 2023, Shortlisted in The Student Selection
FUTURES Photography 2024
2023 FOAM Talent 2024-2025
Falling Walls Science Summit, Art and Science Category, Winner
Eye Catcher NEXT Award, Eyecatcher Global International Film Open Pitching Forum. Hong Kong
2022 WMA Commission, Winner, Hong Kong
Photobook Award 2021, Winner, The Finnish Museum of Photography and The Association of Photographic Artists
The Most Beautiful Book in Finland 2021, Finalist, The Finnish Book Art Committee
2021 Notable Abstract of LABS 2021, Leonardo
2020 KASSEL DUMMY AWARD 2020, Shortlisted
The Olga and Vilho Linnamo Foundation, Scholarship
2018 Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship Program, Shortlisted
International Summer School of Photography
2017 NTU International Photography Awards, Open Series, First Prize
Wonder Foto Day, Grand Jury Prix
2016 Pdn Objects of Desire, Fine Art or Personal, Winner
International Summer School of Photography
2015 Lucie Foundation Scholarship Program, Shortlisted
IPA Mentorship Program, Scholarship Grant
Selected Press
2025 Echo Gone Wrong, reportage on (Inter)Faces of Predictions at the Riga Photography Biennale
2025 Euronews, reportage and interview on the Bienal’25 Fotografia do Porto
2025 Blind Magazine, reportage on Between Two Trees, There Are Many Worlds at Bienal'25 Fotografia do Porto
2025 M-cult, project feature on Between Two Trees, There Are Many Worlds
2024 Yogurt Magazine, project feature on Inter(Faces) of Predictions
2024 SCMP, exhibition review on everything is a projection
2024 Ming’s magazine, exhibition review on everything is a projection
2024 RTHK, reportage on everything is a projection
2024 Kobe Ko @ Art and Culture Outreach艺鵠, exhibition review on everything is a projection
2024 Helen Leung @ Art and Culture Outreach艺鵠, exhibition review on everything is a projection
2023 C4 Journal, book review on Ground Truth: The Book
2022 Yogurt Magazine, portfolio showcase on Ground Truth
2022 Conceptual Projects, reportage on Ground Truth exhibited at Circulation(s) Festival
2022 Kaleva on New North, New Perspectives, group exhibition in Finland
2022 Helsingin Sanomat on Common Objects in Context, duo exhibition with Pekko Vasantola in Finland
2022 Frame, travel grant news
2022 PHROOM – Platform for Visual Culture, artist feature
2022 Mobile Strategy, book review on Ground Truth: The Book
2021 NO-NIIN Magazine, exhibition review on Sarajevo Roses and Clouds of June, duo exhibition with Samra Šabanovic
2021 The Light Observer, project feature on Ground Truth
2021 Mustekala Kulttuurilehti, reportage on The Twinkling of an Eye at FotoTallin
2021 Aalto University, project feature on Ground Truth
2021 Aperture Magazine
2018 Hant Magazin Issue#11 Re-discovering the Reality
2018 PLASMA magazine
2018 Still/Loud
2017 Phat Magazine
2017 The Reporter
2017 一個人的文藝復興
2017 Rui Xiang Guan
2017 Editions L'héliotrope
2017 Invisible Photographer Asia
2017 Cactus Digital
2017 Der Greif
2016 F-stop Magazine Interview