Ruoxi Ren

I studied fashion design at Tsinghua University and interaction design arts at the University of the Arts London. In 2020 a machine-learning work of mine, which generates a new species every 19 minutes, was presented at Ars Electronica.

From 2023 the work became physical again. Electronic Eucharist used hot-bent acrylic and light to keep the touch a screen filters out; the Summon paintings and The Lure, made with Xue Jun, followed light that draws a body in. In 2026 the body itself came forward: in Down Beneath the Cliff, with Xue Jun, digital doubles rehearse a descent before anyone makes it; in Wea(k)pon, with Zhang Yixin, two performers duel without dialogue.

Ruoxi Ren (任若溪) is a media artist and researcher whose practice examines how technical systems place the body and reorganize time, perception, intimacy, and action. Working across installation, sculpture, light, moving image, performance, and participatory experience, she turns the rules embedded in screens, algorithms, and infrastructure into sensory interfaces with texture, weight, and behavioral logic.

Recent works use aluminum, wax, glass, neon, and digital images to investigate touch, transparency, attraction, and the material conditions of technological life. Her work has been presented at Hanart TZ Gallery, the V&A, Guardian Art Center, and Ars Electronica.

Manifestos, 2025

I. Ingestion · Cybernetic Metabolism

I observe the world through systemic protocols

Here, the body is a container of information. I record the feedback loops between system and environment: the first breath of life in electronic pulses.

II. Transformation · Algorithmic Ontology

I witness the evolution of digital specters

Here, signs try to overstep the flesh. I witness digital specters in their tedious evolution, and their vain, magnificent longing for a sense of existence.

III. Manifestation · Attractor State

I record the ultimate radiance within systemic silence

Here, language finally sinks into silence. I record the warmth that remains after a peak experience. It is the void, and it is compassion.

Selected Exhibitions

  • 2026
  • TANK Art Festival, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai
  • Where Warmth Is Spoken, Melting Is the Tone, DOSE Contemporary Art, Shanghai
  • Late Flow Young Artist Residency Program, residency exhibition, Fuzhou
  • 2025
  • Whale Song, On the Arc of the Sun, Yuan Yu Sen Lin Art Space, Shanghai
  • State of Ecstasy, 24th China Shanghai International Arts Festival, The Bund – Former City Hall, Shanghai
  • The Kiss of the Lure: Immersive Installation Theatre, The Confluence Gallery, Float Site, Quanzhou
  • Tone and Manner (Qiangdiao), Sukie Gallery, Shanghai
  • When the Stars Shine, ai Art Center, Shanghai
  • Third Stop: Fluid Table, Platform: ShanghART West Bund Central, Shanghai
  • 2024
  • The Great Manual of (Post)Human Physiology, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong
  • Aura Hunter, two-person exhibition, DOSE Contemporary Art, Shanghai
  • Spiritual Being II: Light Beyond the Traces, The Parrot, Shanghai
  • 2023
  • Magical Modern, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai
  • From the Other Hill, Guardian Art Center, Beijing
  • Nanjing International Art Fair UNI-NAFI, Nanjing
  • TANK Art Festival, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai
  • Ballad of Species, The Others Art Fair, Italy
  • 2022
  • CRYPTO ART WEEK ASIA, Singapore
  • TANK Art Festival, TANK Shanghai, Shanghai
  • Messier Contemporary Art Exhibition, Messier 31
  • Supercritical State, Shifo Art Commune, Zhengzhou
  • A Room of One’s Own, Safehouse Art, London
  • 2021
  • USB Multi-Port Connection, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai
  • Tomorrow Kernel, two-person exhibition, Wild Art Festival, Shenzhen
  • Infinite and Inevitable, Cloud Art Museum, Bund Finance Center, Shanghai
  • Romanticism in the Cyber Age, Joli Art, Shenzhen
  • White T Project 2021 Charity Auction, Kuz Art Center, Shanghai
  • ECO BOX Charity Exhibition, YCJ Art Club, Beijing
  • 2020
  • MIRROR MAZE Across Identities: Body, Soul, and Time, NO SPACE, online VR
  • Ars Electronica, Linz
  • THE EYE, V&A, London
  • Golden Fish, The Cave, London

Residencies

  • 2026 Late Flow Young Artist Residency Program, Fuzhou — organized by NetDragon Websoft, academic support by the Central Academy of Fine Arts; project: Down Beneath the Cliff
  • 2025 Float Site Artist Residency, Quanzhou

Teaching

  • 2026, 2024 Guest Lecturer, Studio 3, Department of Sculpture, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing — May 2026 and October 2024, two four-week appointments, co-taught with Zhang Yi

Education

  • 2021 MA Interaction Design Arts, University of the Arts London
  • 2019 BFA Fashion Design, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University