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Wendi Yan (b. 1999, Beijing) constructs speculative epistemologies through research-driven worldbuilding and metafictional simulation. She uses CGI technology, game engines, conceptual sculpture to probe the artifice of knowledge, examine the boundaries of the scientific self, and imagine alternative historical timelines in the psychogeography of the East and West. Her work examines the embodied challenges of facing alien epistemic systems across time. Staging fiction to investigate what constitutes the real, she models metaphysical instruments, animates epistemological creatures, and engineers virtual environments governed by counterfactual logics. Yan collaborates frequently with scientists and engineers, from synthetic biology to astrophysics, to explore the frontier between science and entertainment, between imaging and imagining.
The Grand Prix recipient of the 6th VH Award by Hyundai Motor Group, Yan has exhibited in 12 countries at arebyte Digital Art Centre, MU Hybrid House, Turku Art Museum, ArtScience Museum, Ujazdowski Castle CCA, House of Electronic Arts, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Vision Hall, Stiftung St. Matthaus, BANK Gallery, TANK Art Center, and Slash, with film screenings at Hamburger Bahnhof, Ars Electronica Festival, FWB Fest, and Now Instant Image Hall. She has spoken at the Gray Area Festival, New Inc Demo Festival, BioDesign Summit, Rhizome World and Skywalker Ranch. Residencies include Eyebeam, Glitch and the Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Expedition. She has been interviewed for her work by Art & Market, Le Random, Monopol Magazine, Numero China, Art & Business China, CIFRA TV, Meta Eye, Sursuma, Serpentine Future Art Ecosystem, WeTransfer and Coeval Magazine. At New Inc, New Museum’s art and technology incubator, she was a member during Y11 (Creative Science) and Y12 (Extended Realities). She has completed multiple art and writing commissions for the Berggruen Institute.
Based in New York, Yan holds an A.B. in History of Science from Princeton University, where she won the Horace H. Wilson ’25 Senior Thesis Prize in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a M.S. in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc.
She was an inaugural member of the Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship (2023), created by Laurene Powell Jobs to support young creators between technology and liberal arts. In 2026, she was the inaugural resident at A24 Labs, received New Aesthetics Grant by Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen, and was awarded Honorary Mention for the CERN Collide Stockholm Residency.
CV
Headshot by Jessica Chou
The Grand Prix recipient of the 6th VH Award by Hyundai Motor Group, Yan has exhibited in 12 countries at arebyte Digital Art Centre, MU Hybrid House, Turku Art Museum, ArtScience Museum, Ujazdowski Castle CCA, House of Electronic Arts, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, Vision Hall, Stiftung St. Matthaus, BANK Gallery, TANK Art Center, and Slash, with film screenings at Hamburger Bahnhof, Ars Electronica Festival, FWB Fest, and Now Instant Image Hall. She has spoken at the Gray Area Festival, New Inc Demo Festival, BioDesign Summit, Rhizome World and Skywalker Ranch. Residencies include Eyebeam, Glitch and the Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Expedition. She has been interviewed for her work by Art & Market, Le Random, Monopol Magazine, Numero China, Art & Business China, CIFRA TV, Meta Eye, Sursuma, Serpentine Future Art Ecosystem, WeTransfer and Coeval Magazine. At New Inc, New Museum’s art and technology incubator, she was a member during Y11 (Creative Science) and Y12 (Extended Realities). She has completed multiple art and writing commissions for the Berggruen Institute.
Based in New York, Yan holds an A.B. in History of Science from Princeton University, where she won the Horace H. Wilson ’25 Senior Thesis Prize in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a M.S. in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc.
She was an inaugural member of the Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship (2023), created by Laurene Powell Jobs to support young creators between technology and liberal arts. In 2026, she was the inaugural resident at A24 Labs, received New Aesthetics Grant by Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen, and was awarded Honorary Mention for the CERN Collide Stockholm Residency.
CV
Headshot by Jessica Chou