Wenhan Hu (b. 2001, Hangzhou, China) works across photography, spatial collage, and digital intervention. Hu’s practice explores the body’s guerrilla struggle against commercial imagery, constructing fractured self-portraits that refuse smooth, consumable form.
Growing up within the digital vortex, Hu interrogates the contemporary “distorted mirror stage,” where the self is perpetually constructed and fragmented under networked gazes. Through optical distortion, found imagery and iterative post-production, Hu stages the body as both target and weapon, constructing fractured fields of vision that expose the alienation, labour and glitches of the digital body performance. Hu’s practice probes visibility, censorship, and the politics of desire in an image-saturated world.
Hu is an MFA Photography candidate at Rhode Island School of Design (expected 2027). Hu holds a dual Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University (2024): a Bachelor of Science in Mechanics and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering Systems. This engineering background informs a practice invested in optical apparatus, surface, construction, and the physicality of images. Hu has received the Henry Wolf Scholarship (2026) and RISD Fellowship (2025).
:: Education ::
2027(Expected) | Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
MFA Photography
2024 | Tsinghua University, Beijing
Dual Bachelor’s Degree: Bachelor of Science in Mechanics & Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering Systems
:: Awards ::
2026 | Henry Wolf Scholarship
2025 | RISD Fellowship
:: Selected Exhibitions ::
2026 | Where Nothing Has Ever Happened, Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI
2026 | This is the World (I Made It For You), Red Eye Gallery, RISD Design Center, Providence, RI
2025 | Every Time I Conjure A Stone I Throw It, Photography MFA Biennial, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2025 | Housewarming: First-Year MFA Photography Exhibition, Red Eye Gallery, RISD Design Center, Providence, RI
:: Press ::
2026 | Heresy - Scale Journal Issue No.02, “Wenhan Hu: Flat Jungle”, Printed
2026 | Visions Magazine - Spring 2026, “Cuttlefish”, Online