Zhonghao Chen is an award-winning artist, curator, scholar, and ludic designer whose work spans and merges boundaries across art, culture, technology, and the environment. Residing between China and New Zealand, Chen’s research and practice create a dynamic interplay that enquiries and reframes the intersections of image phenomena, curatorial intentions, narrative forms, materiality, technology and worlding. His explorations into ludic design, virtual extensions like VR media, and creative machinery continually probe the frontiers of “hyper-humanity,” animal cruelty, nonhuman agency, technodiversity, intelligence diversity, transmediation, and hyper-nature, framing these themes within a world increasingly shaped by digital and virtual spaces.

With over two decades of cross-cultural experience, Chen’s contributions as an artist, curator, and educator have been widely recognized. His work has been showcased at premier international venues, including Ars Electronica, Christchurch Art Museum, The Physics Room, Hanshan Museum, and Jonathan Smart Gallery, among others. His projects are housed in major public and private collections worldwide, marking his impact on the global stage. Chen’s academic service reflects his dedication to advancing knowledge in digital and experimental media: he has been instrumental in organizing events such as the Chinese Digital Games Research Association Conference and the Cumulus Regional Seminar in China, and he reviews for high-profile conferences like ArtsIT/DLI and ISEA, as well as for The MIT Press.

In New Zealand, Chen has directed the ABC Art Collective, represented by leading galleries, where he curates projects that fuse art with industrial media, creating new dialogues between the physical and digital realms.

Currently, he is an assistant professor, Programme Director of BA Art Technology and Entertainment with Contemporary Entrepreneurialism and the Professional Development Program (PDP) director at the Academy of Film and Creative Technology at XJTLU in Suzhou. His academic search and creative approach to bridging the arts and technology continue to foster a critical understanding of how creativity and technological happening intersect in today’s cultural and creative landscape.

Environmental Aesthetic

VR Art

Digital and Analogical Drawing

Narrative Exploration

Digital and Analogical Materiality

Painting and expanded painting

Moving Image

Sci-fi Literature

Expanded Curation

Sound Art

Simulation and Ludic Design

Body and embodiment

Non-Human Agency

Technology Philosophy

Assistant professor, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, 2020-present

Practicing Artist, 2010-present

Curator, ABC Art Initiative, 2010-present

CAT002 Essentials of Arts Culture and TechnologyCAT107TC

CAT003 Exploring Cultural Events

CAT102TC Form, Innovation and Culture

CAT103TC Introduction to Storytelling

CAT107TC Minor Project Design and Delivery

CAT201TC Form, Innovation and Audience

CAT207TC Immersion and Virtual Worlds

CAT209TC Image Design, Creation, Manipulation and World Building

CAT301TC Commercial Project Design and Realisation

CAT302TC Final Year Project: Moving Image

Industrial Engagement Excellence Award, XJTLU 2024.

Teaching Innovation Award, XJTLU 2023.

Innovation and Knowledge Award, XJTLU 2023.

Award of Outstanding Contribution to the Development of the Organization, XJTLU 2021.

Sawtell Turner Prize

Harry van der Lecq Scholarship

The Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship

College of Arts Honours Scholarship, University of Canterbury

The Master’s Scholarship, University of Canterbury

Selected Finalist. James Wallace Award