Yimei(Emair) Zhu
Yimei (Emair) Zhu is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates how limits of vision reveal the underlying systems that structure perception and lived experience. Rather than treating blind spots as failures, she approaches them as conditions that expose how visibility is constructed and controlled.
Her practice understands perception as contingent and unstable, shaped through regimes of classification and access. Drawing from this, she mobilizes perception itself as a critical framework. Working across installation, moving image, and tactile materials, Emair constructs environments that resist optical dominance and redistribute attention across multiple sensory registers. Material resistance and sensory reorientation function as strategies, proposing perception as an open, negotiated, and continuously shifting process.
Emair’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Hua Art Museum (Shenzhen), Taoxichuan Museum of Art, the International Museum of Surgical Science (Chicago), the Design Museum of Chicago, and CSI Project Space, among others. Her work has received recognition through awards such as the First Place Award at Fantastic Fibers (Yeiser Art Center), the Inclusion Fellowship from Chicago Sculpture International, and the Special Recognition Award at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival.
Education
2023 MFA, Art and Technology Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, U.S
2020 BFA, Experimental Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China
Selected Exhibitions
2025 Paris Convention Center, Paris, France, iGEM, Art & Design Exhibition, SlimeVolt
2025 International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, US, Len!Scape (Solo Exhibition)
2024 Chicago Art Department, Chicago, U.S, 21st Century Wanderer, Unconditioning
2024 Design Museum of Chicago, U.S, Voices Embodied, Sight Cite
2024 OH Art Gallery, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, U.S, Prismatic (re)ality, Never Awake
2024 CSI Project Space, Chicago, U.S, Self | Portraits, Squirrel Revelation
2024 Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY, U.S, Fantastic Fibers, E
2023 Epiphany Center, Chicago, U.S, Elemental Impact, E·F·B·P
2023 The Wrong Biennale 2023/24, Italy, Benadryl Plus, E·F·B·P
2023 CSI Project Space, Chicago, U.S, COALESCE, E·F·B·P (Two People Exhibition)
2023 Las Laguna Art Gallery, CA, U.S, ABSTRACT 2023, Cats Whiskers Warning
2023 The Martin Gallery, Chicago, U.S, MIRROR, MIRROR, EYE,I
2023 SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington St., Chicago, U.S, Graduate Exhibition Two, EYE,I
2022 SAIC Galleries, Chicago, U.S, Transience, 5 square meters
2022 Taoxichuan Museum of Art, China, The Fourth Academy Experimental Art Documentary Exhibition, The Way
2020 Lishan Space, Huizhou, China, Huizhou Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, The Way
2020 Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China, Outstanding Works by Graduates from Key Art Institutions in China, The Way
2020 Hua Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, The Epoch of Robo-Sapiens Art, The Way
2020 Art Museum of GAFA, Guangzhou, China, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Degree Show, The Way
Selected Performances and Theaters
2025 International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, US, Len?Scape (Performance)
2025 Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Chicago, U.S, The Story of Lady Li (Theater)
2024 Wes Warehouse Theatre, Wuzhen, China, Emerging Theatre Artists Competition of Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Sattva (Theater)
2024 Logan Center Chicago, U.S, Nasty, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Living Rock (Theater)
Selected Publications
2025 Sight Cite — cited in Kean O’Brien’s PhD Qualifying Paper, UW–Madison; presented at NWSA (2025), and selected for CAA (2026) & IC Gender Studies & Sexuality, Amsterdam (forthcoming peer-reviewed publication).
2025 SlimeVolt — featured in Navigating the Landscapes of Design Research: Finding Your Way, Routledge (forthcoming), by Prof. Dee Nicholas & Leslie Atzmon.
2025 Tianyu ARTECH presented tech and bio art at the 12th China iGEM Conference and the 2nd Global Bio-Developer Conference.
2024 Life & Work with Yimei(emair) Zhu, Stories & Insights, CANVASREBEL, September 19, 2024
2024 ARTIST TALK MAGAZINE, Issue 31, page 83
2024 Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine, ORIGINAL Issue15
2023 Meet Yimei(Emair) Zhu, CANVASREBEL
2023 Goddessarts Magazine, Issue 10, July/August 2023, page 29
2023 SlimeVolt, BDC 2022, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MICHAEL BALANGUE
2021 A post-90s artist from GAFA expands human perception through “external” augmentation devices
Selected Talks
2025 Conversations with Scientists, STEAM Society, Guangzhou, China, The Cellular Canvas: A Synthetic Biology Art Rhapsody
2025 When Art Meets Brain-Computer Interface and Bioethics, Fuli Center, Guangzhou, China, Interdisciplinary｜Art+
2024 Design History Society Conference, Canterbury, UK, Biodesign: Territories and Boundaries
2024 Artists and Art Historians Conversations, Working Title, Chicago, IL, US, Nothingness is the end/And all things are here
2023 Art and Technology Studies, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US, Gaze + Low Vision
2023 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China, Mutualisms - Bio & Art(Initiator)
2023 The Martin Gallery, Chicago, IL, US, Mirror, Mirror, the West Town Art Walk artist talk
Selected Awards
2024 Sattva, Special Recognition Award, Wuzhen Theater Festival, China
2024 E, First Place, Fantastic Fibers, Yeiser Art Center, KY, US
2023 E·F·B·P, Biafarin Awards 2023, Ontario, Canada
2023 EYE,I, Emerging Woman Artist Award, Arts to Hearts Project, US
2022 SlimeVolt, Top 6, Biodesign Challenge (BDC) Summit 2022, US
2020 The Way: Lab Plan, Excellent Graduation Works, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
Scholarships
2022 Second Year Grad International Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US
2021 The Joan Truckenbrod Scholarship for Women in Art & Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US
Grants
2024 Len!Scape, International Museum of Surgical Science, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), Chicago, US
2023 EYE,I, 2023/2024 Inclusion Fellowship Recipient, Chicago Sculpture International, US
2020 The Way: Lab Plan, Excellent Graduation Works, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
Commissions
2025 Kick the way (Theater)
2024 Sattva (Theater)
Collection
2020 The Way, Collected by Guangzhou Digital Library, China, Series No. YQC2020007