Aaajiao



= Introduction = aaajiao is the internet persona of Xu Wenkai, a digital artist from Xi'an, China. He is a new media artist known for his work on new information technologies, most of which is hosted on the internet. He has appeared in numerous exhibitions in China and internationally, and has won several awards for his work.

Early Life
Xu Wenkai was born in 1984 in Xi'an, China. He has incorporated both his birth year and the city he was born in into his work. His birth year shares the name of a famous dystopian novel, 1984, that discussed surveillance using new technologies.

Career
Xu Wenkai currently works from his studio in Shanghai, and splits time between Berlin, Germany and Shanghai. He works with a team of technologists based in Shanghai which allows him to quickly release new works. For example, as generative AI was gaining popularity in 2022 and 2023 he created an installation piece called Prompt Engineering that incorporated a large video screen with an AI generated anime figure that read out the complicated prompt that was used to create it.

His work is noted for being multidisciplinary, incorporating digital technology, electronic art, materials science, architecture, photography, painting, and sculpture.

Notable Exhibitions
Reboot Virtuality: New Media Group Exhibition, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China

In the Reboot virtuality exhibition, participants contributed work focusing on the new possibilities opened by the growth of virtual reality.

Take Me (I’m Yours), Jewish Museum, New York, United States

Take Me (I'm Yours), which became the most visited exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York City, participating artists contributed art that patrons were allowed to take home with them. Contributions from other artists included custom candies, bottle caps, coins, and other small objects. aaajiao contributed email-trek, a work consisting of a large LCD screen made out of soft materials that showed dialogue from Star Trek, interspersed with the names and emails of people who visited the gallery. Visitors were invited to become part of the Start Trek universe by sending an email to a website set up for the exhibition.

ALIAS: aaajiao, Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai, China

aaajiao's first solo show, incorporating work from throughout his career. Notable works include Karesansui, a large, room-filling sculpture that incorporates black spikes that jut out at odd angles from the floor, obj. 3 and obj. 4, video works of projected patterns on stones.

CA'ASI 2010, Beijing, China

aaajiao won third place for HHD_FUN, a pavilion installation incorporating a facade that evoked origami and the glowing LED lights often found on electronic equipment. The red lights give the building qualities of a virtual object from a computer game or animation.

Awards
Art Sanya Awards 2014

Pierre Huber Art Prize (shortlist)

AAC Young Artist Award (shortlist)