Jenny Jiaying Chen holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She is also a writer, independent curator, and host of the podcast “Share the Fire”. Her research focuses on the body, new materialism, and feminist metaphysics, and has recently expanded into diasporic aesthetics through the lens of feminist and postcolonial thought. She is especially interested in the localized translation of art theory and extrinsic institutional modes of practice. Previously commissioned by Asia Art Archive, she completed a research project on Chinese women artists’ archives. She is currently translating Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain for the Paideia Humanities Series.

Chen received her BA from the China Academy of Art, her MA from Lancaster University in the UK, and her PhD from East China Normal University. She approaches art as a way of crossing epistemological and perceptual boundaries, working across writing, curating, and contextual practice. Her curatorial projects include “Schabalala Self: Illusion of the Self” (2025), “Zhang Yibei: Please No Helmet” (2024), among others. She received the 2019 Hyundai Blue Prize for the exhibition “AI: Love and Artificial Intelligence”. She also contributed to the regional project of the Goethe-Institut East and Central Asia “Solitude: Loneliness and Freedom”. Her writings have appeared in Artforum China, The Art Journal, and Art Review China, and she has collaborated with Professor Nicola Liberati on studies of virtual identity and intimate relationships.

Curatorial & Projects    

“Tschabalala Self: The Illusion of the Self“, Longlati Foundation, 2025

Curated “Speaking into the Mirror” screening event, Department of Culture and Education of the German Consulate General, Shanghai, 15 Nov. 2024

Academic support for “Li Weiyi: Three in One”, Fotografiska, Shanghai, Oct. 2024

“Zhang Yibei: Please No Helmet”, Longlati Foundation, 2024

“Wilhelm Sasnal: Under the Asphalt,” Longlati Foundation, 2023

“Let 100 Reading Groups Bloom Season II: Meeting Others Halfway“, Supported by Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council @Special edition Project, Shanghai; By Art Matter, Hangzhou; Chizi Space, Quanzhou; Topred Center for Contemporary Art (TCCA), 2022

“USB Multi-Port connect Exhibition”, MadeIn Gallery & Gallery Func & Qiao Space, Shanghai, 2021

“AI: Love and Artificial Intelligence”, Hyundai Motorstudio, Beijing, 2020  

“Copernicus”, E.M.Bannister Gallery of Rhode Island College, Providence, U.S, 2019         

Shanghai Curators Lab, Shang Academy of Fine Arts, 2018

“Remote Sensing”, Slime Engine Virtual Space, 2018  

“Pixel Park”, Jingan Sculpture Park, Shanghai, 2016

Publishing

Silence Amidst the Clamor: The Enigmatic He Muqun (Hoo Mojong), The Art-Journal, 2025

Zhi Wei: Hands-On, Hong Kong Basel Balice Hertling Solo Booth, 2025 Mar

Diasporic Aesthetics: The Path of Deliberation Between Self and History, The Art-Journal, Issue 118, 2024 Sep

Lost at Home: Han Qian’s Memory Medium and Homeland Phantom Pain, The Art-Journal, 2024 Jun

Review of “Shanghai Palimpsest: Restaging the R.A.S. Library”, Art Review China, 2024 Fall Issue

Silence and Noise, Art Review, 2024 Feb

The Sustainability Dilemma of Reproduction, Beijing Evening News, 2024 Apr

Co-writing Chapter “Augmented Galatea for Physical Pygmalion: A Phenomenological Approach to Intimacy in VTubers in the East Asia Region”, in Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence, published by Springer, 2023

Becoming others: Playing the virtual identity and intimacy, Prometeica NºESPECIAL Invierno 2022

Preliminaries to “Digital Intimacy”, co-writing with Prof. Nicola Liberati, BAU 18

Editing artist’s writings, Heichi Magazine, 2020

Co-editing Shanghai Contemporary Art Archival Project after 1998 – 2012, MOUSSE Publishing, 2018

Invited Talks & Panels

Conference Presentations

“Bodies in Digital Transition: Transcultural Dialogues on Digital Intimacies and Artistic Practices”, Goldsmiths, University of London, Sep. 2025

12th ISSCO International Conference 2025: Chinese Overseas in a Changing World: Global Networks, Local Realities, Universiti Malaya, Nov. 2025

The Fifth Forum on the Frontiers of Art Theory: Art and Memory, Southeast University, Sep. 2024 

The 23^rd Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Media (SPM2022): Being Together in the Digital Age, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Mar. 2022

LINE 2021: Living in the New Era, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nov. 2021           

The International Conference on Arts, Culture and Education 2020, 12           

(ICACE): Home and Unhome, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, 2020

Honour & Awards

Winner of “Hyundai Blue Prize 2019”, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing

Shortlisted for the “Emerging Curators Project 2018” hosted by Power Station of Art (PSA), Shanghai

International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC) 3 Finalist, 2016