Chinese, b.1990, Changsha, Hunan Province, received his BFA from No.3 Studio, Department of Sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2015. In 2016, he went to graduate school and dropped out in the same year. He currently lives and works in Beijing.
Tong Kunniao’s works across installation, performance, video, sculpture, and painting. He is adept at using “excess products” generated by the modern world—a perpetual waste-making factory, and “leftovers” that have been found in resale shops, the flea markets or on the streets. He concerns about how the complex social structure has determined our social status and eaten up our individual identities. By decomposing ready-made objects and reassembling them in tandem or keeping them perfectly in balance, Tong aims to demonstrate the individual consciousness (the free spirit) behind the objects as well as the multiplicity and fragility of the system. In an era when commodity fetishism and symbol consumption are prevalent, and information is overloaded, Tong’s work extends beyond formal boundaries of reconstruction and presents it in a quirky and seemly absurd manner.
His selected solo and group exhibitions are including: Wiltopia (Hua International, Berlin, Germany, 2022), The Myth of Human Nature (Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2022), Artist’s Game (OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China, 2022), Sailing (TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China, 2022), The Exhibition of Annul of Contemporary Art of China Shanghai 2020 (Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2021), Futurism of the Past—— Contemplating the Past and Future in Chinese Contemporary Art (Beijing Exhibition Center, Beijing, China, 2021), I Am the Nature-on Vulnerability, Survival in A Society at Risk, 26th Rohkunstbau (Brandenburg, Germany, 2021), Golden Dystopia on Three Millimeters (Cc Foundation Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2021), NIAO x KUN x TONG (Jupiter Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2020), I don’t MISS u (XPM, Changsha, China, 2019), Dans Le Ventre Du Pigenon, Il Y A Non Seulement Du Caca, Mais Du Pain Aussi (Liusa Wang Gallery, Paris, France, 2017), Over Pop (Yuz Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2016), Why Don’t You Eat Stinky Tofu? (Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2016), Dreaming a Baton the Floor (Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, China, 2016) .etc.