Ben Yau (b.1992, Glasgow) is a Chinese-Scots visual artist based in The Hague, NL. He graduated from MA Photography & Society at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2023 and from Camberwell College of Arts in the study of Fine Art Photography in 2019, in the same year being selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries as well as Creekside Open. Selected exhibitions include solo presentations ‘In the Shadow of Ashes’, The Balcony (The Hague 2024), ‘Proximate Currents: When Everything Fuses Together’, Iniva (online/London 2020); and group exhibitions ‘The London Open’, Whitechapel Gallery (London 2022), ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, and South London Gallery, London (2019).
His work is cultivated from historiographical research of othered narratives: the repression of certain histories, and the imperial operations that are conducted to this end. These narratives are often left out of official accounts of history, and therefore demand a multi-modal approach beyond the scope of the conventional institutions of history. This approach involves intervening, mediating, and countering the archive, utilising the generative ambiguities of artistic research. From research led processes, he engages with a diverse range of materials. These materials include declassified intelligence documents, archival films, and newspaper clippings.
EDUCATION
+2021 – 23 Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
+2016 – 19 University of the Arts, London, UK
Exhibitions:
+2024 ’Counter-Archive Screening’ / Gasworks, London UK [group]
+2024 ’Stuart Hall: Positions and Trajectories’ / The Exchange, Birmingham UK [group]
+2024 ’In the Shadow of Ashes’ / The Balcony, The Hague NL [solo]
+2023 ’In Times of Trouble We Dream with Open Eyes’ / The Grey Space in the Middle, The Hague NL [group]
+2023’Stilled Images’ / Tube Gallery, Palma PMI [group]
+2023’Unstill’ / Royal Academy of Art, The Hague NL [group]
+2022 ‘The London Open’ / Whitechapel Gallery, London UK [group]
+2022’Countercurrents’ / Bunker at Waterkant, The Hague NL [group]
+2020 ‘Source Materials’ / Nadir Project Space, Brighton UK [group]
+2020’Extractive Model Study’ / Bloc Projects, Sheffield UK [solo]
+2020’Proximate Currents: When Everything Fuses Together’ / Iniva, London UK [solo]
+2019 ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2019’ / South London Gallery, London UK [group]
+2019′ We Breathe in the Space Between’ / MIR Project Space, London UK [group]
+2019 ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2019’ / Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds UK [group]
+2019 ‘On Power’ / Central Saint Martins, London UK [group]
+2019 ‘Camberwell Degree Show’ / Camberwell College of Arts, London UK [group]
+2019 ‘Creekside Open 2019 Selected by Sacha Craddock’ / APT Gallery, London UK [group]
+2019 ‘Meanwhile’ / Four Corners Gallery, London UK [group]
+2019 ‘The Spectre of the Real’ / SEAS, Brighton UK [group]
+2019 ‘Co-op(t)’ / FarGo Village, Coventry UK [group]
+2019 ‘P2’ / Copeland Gallery, London UK [group]
+2018 ‘Pic.up Prints’ / The Tea Building, London UK [group]
+2018 ‘Unspoken’ / The Stash Gallery, London UK [group]
+2018 ‘Plane of Immanence’ / Safehouse, London UK [group]
+2018 ‘Over Capacity’ / CGP, London UK [group]
+2017 ‘Decade Zero’ / Greenwich West, London UK [duo]
