J Jiang

Born 2000, Shanghai.

J Jiang is a conceptual artist based in Chicago and Shanghai.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2023.

Being human means navigating approximately 35,000 conscious decisions daily. Educated internationally, I have developed a heightened awareness of how each decision shapes both personal trajectories and collective futures. As an artist, I explore the complex relationship between individuals' mentalities and the settled reality. My works synthesize their dynamics by creating undefinable existences, playing with game structures, and constructing novel scenes at specific sites. Through sculptures and performances, my research-based practice focuses on human agency in the posthuman era.


Inspired by Stefan Zweig’s Decisive Moments in History and Max Tegmark’s Life3.0 which outlined 12 potential future situations involving superintelligence based on 12 human choices, I delve into the fragile yet monumental mentalities of individuals who have altered or will alter the course of human history. Through practices, I reimagine subjects' unique ways of interconnection in unrevealed realities, recuperating human lost sensations in unchosen choices, reckoning with their long-term impact on life cycles even beyond humans. At SAIC gallery entrance, I created an installation featuring a collection of things forbidden in the gallery, inviting viewers to confront what is invisible and censored under a specific context. My works build upon Gilles Deleuze’s claim on art for provoking new sensations, Boris Groys’ concept of installation as a space of unconcealment, and Pierre Huyghe, Jesse Darling’s narration approaches.


My research process typically begins with a specific fragment of reality where I sense alternative potential: an ongoing event, a made-out object, or an established order. To deconstruct it, I create charts mapping its historical layers, material properties, and perception logic. In making, I modify and recompose some elements in the chart to highlight moments of vulnerability, ephemerality, and creativity. I focus on the concept of choice, creating conditions rather than outcomes.


I care about invisible systems that maneuver human perception on both physical and social levels. Physically, I visualize forces like gravity, randomness, and entropy as they interact with materials. I designed a coin-drop machine that used my palm pattern as the guiding surface. Socially, my works highlight struggle moments, specifically when political and technological structures impose limitations on human experiences. In an office, I spent one month transforming everyday functional objects into a melancholic narration of abjection.

CV





EDUCATION
2023 BFA Sculpture & Performance, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US

REWARDS
2024  World Less Traveled Awards, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US


EXHIBITIONS
2024 Ambition!, West Bund Art Center (Hall N), Shanghai, China
2024 mute BODY, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig, Germany
2024 windy HOME, Tour de Franz, Leipzig, Germany
2023 Fall Undergraduate Exhibition 2023, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Gallery, Chicago, IL, US
2022 Round Ken, Solo Exhibition, Ming Art Museum, Suzhou, China
2021 Hangzhou 3rd Good Art Fair, Special Artist Exhibition, Notting Hill, Hangzhou, China
2020 Artbash, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, US
2018 WHO AM I, Museum of Contemporary Art 3rd floor, Shanghai, China


PUBLIC ART
2023 Analog, Art on The Mart, The Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL, US


PERFORMANCE
2024 ‘Approaches to be an Experience Thief’, Third Room, Leipzig, Germany
2023 Impact Performance Festival 2023, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Gallery, Chicago, IL, US
2023 Cho-Cho-Cho-Choo Station, Comfort Station, Chicago, IL, US
2023 READINGS, Watershed Art and Ecology, Chicago, IL, US
2022 White Box-LOVE, ‘A Place We Long For’, The Research House for Asian Art(RHAA), Chicago, IL, US


RESIDENCY & FELLOWSHIP
2024 PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program, Leipzig, Germany


REVIEWS & PUBLICATIONS
2024 Avena, Kintija, ‘J Jiang: Expanding into material’, PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program Press


WORK IN THE FIELD
2024-present Workshop Lecturer, Perrotin Gallery, Shanghai, China
2024-present Art Curriculum Designer, Art Teacher, MAKE ART, Shanghai, China
2022-2023 Graduate Assistant and Technician, Performance Department, SAIC, Chicago, IL
2022-2023 Teaching Assistant, Contemporary Practice, SAIC, Chicago, IL
2021-2023 Founder & Art Teacher, Shanghai Baishi Educational Technology Company, Shanghai, China
i.e. An art curriculum held in museums in Shanghai, which collaborates with multiple art museums and galleries in Shanghai including Perrotin gallery, Power Station of Art, Fosun Foundation, West Bund Museum.
2020-2021 Art Teacher & Art Curriculum Designer, MUMA K12 Art Center, Shanghai, China