YAO CHENGYU 姚承語
Chengyu Yao (b. 2002, Zhejiang, China) is a London-based artist whose practice focuses on marginalised narratives, psychological trauma, and mysticism. Working across painting, installation, performance, and digital media, she draws from personal and collective experiences to explore the emotional lives of forgotten people, events, and spaces.
Her works are visually delicate yet emotionally charged, often merging symbolic imagery with intuitive mark-making to create environments that evoke both reflection and unease. With a distinctive visual language and cross-cultural sensitivity, Chengyu challenges social amnesia and opens space for empathy, grief, and healing.
EXHIBITIONS
2025 Neither /Nor/ and Both, HARTslane Gallery, London, UK
LONDON ART BIENNALE 2025, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, UK
Degree Shows 2025, BA Fine Art and BA Fine Art & History of Art, Goldsmiths College, London, UK
BECOMING OF MEMORY, 185c Bankside, London, UK
Time and Memory virtual exhibition, Arts to Hearts Projects, USA
Surf & Turf Exhibition, Badger in the Wall Gallery, North Yorkshire, UK
Print It! 2025, The Mill Gallery, Leeds, UK
100X100 VIRTUAL EXHIBITION, BobCat Gallery, London, UK
Harmonia Exhibition, Echos Studio, Sao Paulo, BR
12th Community Art Exhibition, Circular ArtSpace, Bristol, UK
Light in the Dark, Bobcat Gallery, London, UK
2024 Meaningless & Meaningful, Studio Home Awareness, Milan, IT
Secret Salon: Electric Ladyland, Chislehurst Caves, London, UK
Group Art Exhibition: SMALL WORKS, Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket, UK
The Apple Paradox: Desire and Decay, The Split Gallery, London, UK
Her, Ben Pimlott Building, London, UK
HIDDEN, The House of Smalls Art Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
ABSTRACTED, Meta Space Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Reflection Group Exhibition, Open Gallery, Halifax, UK
22nd Community Art Exhibition in Vitual Reality, Circular Artspace, Bristol, UK
Phantasmal Film Festival, Phantasmal Gallery, UK
Time: The Passage of Time and Cycles of Life, Cista Arts, London, UK
Love Letter, Laurie Grove Baths, London，UK
Mystical Art Exhibition, Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket, UK
Inside Out, Omi Gallery, London, UK
Inside the Cradle, Outside the Cradle, Shangzun Gallery, Beijing, CHN
2024 Kyoto Horizons International Art Exhibition, Kyoto International Art Center, Kyoto, JP
Unforeseeable Sense, The Crypt Gallery, London, UK
2023 IYAC Kyoto Intercational Art Exchange Exhibition, Kyoto International Community House, Kyoto, JP
Boundless Borders, Marginalized Voices: A Manifesto, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, FR
2022 Snow of June, Ben Pimlott Building, London, UK
Sleepless Elysium, Venice Arsenale, Venice, IT
Open Exhibition, Loosenart Gallery, Rome, IT
Goldsmiths Fine Art Extension Degree Show, 1 St Jame's, London, UK
Infinite Finiteness, RESTART International Contemporary Art Exhibition, RESTART SPACE, Hangzhou, CHN
2020 Two Wave-particle Duality, Light Gallery, Hangzhou, CHN
2019 Unpredictable, Global Art & Music & Space, Musée l’Amour, Hangzhou, CHN
PRESS
2025 TATE ETC. ISSUE 66: SUMMER 2025, Pp 96-97, Tate Morden, London, UK
Witching Hour zine issue 2, Pp 30-31, Sally Anderson, UK
Time and Memory Book [Premium Collectible Edition, Shiny Hard Cover Book], Pp. 44-45, Arts to Hearts Projects, USA
Print it 2025 Art Book, p. 20, AIRE PLACE STUDIOS, Leeds, UK
Spring 2025, Vol 5, No 2, p. 53, Superpresent, Stafford, USA
Wiro Mag: Aqua, 1st Edition, Pp. 16-17, SU4IP, Sheffield, UK
Melting Moments: Chengyu Yao and the Resonance of "Her", Peoplearts.cn, 25/1/2025
2024 Her, Illustrated Book, London, UK
Abstracted, Material Issue 5, Pp. 38-42, Meta Space Gallery, London, UK
Winter Issue, Seasonal Edition/ Volume 56, Pp. 30-34, Collect Art, Tbilisi, GEO
Chengyu Yao and "Urban Orphans": The Dilemma of Identity, the Boundaries of Media and the Tension of Healing, Art China, 28/11/2024
2023 Relationship: Writing Women's Silence and Resistance in Intimate Formats, Artron.net, 13/01/2023
Relationship II, Graphic Book, London, UK
Relationship I, Graphic Book, London, UK
OTHER APPEARANCES
2025 Quetzal, Film Visual Art, Wuhan, CHN
Mogan Mountain Shena Lang Music Festival, Deqing County Science and Technology New City Civic Square, Huzhou, CHN
BITTER LUCKY DINNER PARTY, CLAIRE MAKHLOUF CARTER in conversation with ELIZABETH PRICE, WIP Space, London, UK
DEMO BITTER MEETING ROOM, WIP Space, London, UK
2024 37th Wudu Music Festival: Winter Descent, Fudan University, Shanghai, CHN
2022 Weekend Salon: Colorful Tarmac, Nanjing University, Nanjing, CHN
Sleepless Elysium: Art Talk, Online Panel Discussion, Venice, IT
Special Prize Winner, Global Talent Art Prize, USA
EDUCATION
2022 - 2025 Goldsmiths, University of London, BA Fine Art (1st Class Degree)
2021 - 2022 Goldsmiths, University of London, BA Fine Art, Extension Degree
ARTIST STATEMENT
Her work explores the psychological and emotional residues of lived experience, revealing hidden tensions and unresolved questions that lie beneath the surface of everyday life. By blending personal narratives with elements of mysticism, Yao challenges conventional understandings of reality and perception. Her practice is not only a form of expression, but also an act of excavation, an attempt to reach into the deeper layers of the human psyche and illuminate the shadows we often overlook.
Through contradiction, symbolism, and emotional intensity, Yao creates a space where viewers are encouraged to confront discomfort, engage in reflection, and question what lies just beyond the visible.