Howie TSUI
徐浩恩works in Vancouver (b. 1978, Hong Kong)
Howie Tsui (徐浩恩, b. 1978, Hong Kong – raised in Lagos and Thunder Bay) is based in Vancouver. Working in ink brush, sound sculptures, lenticular lighboxes and installation, Tsui constructs tense, fictive environments that undermine venerated art forms and narrative genres, often stemming from the Chinese literati tradition. He employs a stylized form of derisive and exaggerated imagery as a way to satirize and disarm broadening regimes and their programs of cultural hegemony. The most notable branch of his practice involves the use of algorithmic animation sequences to raise questions around order, chaos and the potential of social harmony through self-organized societies. Tsui synthesizes diverging socio-cultural anxieties around superstition, surveillance and otherness through a distinctly outsider lens to cast light onto liminal and diasporic experiences.
Education
| 2002 | Honors BA, Fine Arts: Studio Specialization, University of Waterloo |
Selected Solo Exhibitions
| 2025 | A Click Track for Pugilists, Patel Brown, Toronto, Canada |
| 2024 | The Cradle Rocks Above an Abyss, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong |
| 2023 | Retainers of Anarchy, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada |
| 2022 | Retainers of Anarchy, Art Windsor – Essex |
| A Prologue to Entombment, Patel Brown, Toronto, Canada | |
| 2021 | Retainers of Anarchy, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| 2020 | From swelling shadows, we draw our bows, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada |
| Retainers of Anarchy, The Ringling Museum of Art, USA | |
| Parallax Chambers, Burrard Arts Foundation, Vancouver, Canada | |
| 2019 | Retainers of Anarchy, Ottawa Art Gallery, Canada |
| 2018 | Retainers of Anarchy, OCAT Museum Xi’an, China |
| Parallax Chambers, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai | |
| 2017 | Retainers of Anarchy, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada |
| 2013 | Friendly Fire, Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Canada |
| Horror Fables, Le Gallery, Toronto, Canada | |
| Celestials of Gold Mountain, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada | |
| 2012 | Radiant Specters, Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco, USA |
| 2012 | Friendly Fire, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston |
| 2011 | Celestials of Saltwater City, Centre A, Vancouver, Canada |
| 2010 | Horror Fables, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) |
| of Manga & Mongrels, Gallery Jones, Vancouver, Canada | |
| 2009 | Horror Fables, Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa |
| Horror Fables, Ace Art Inc., Winnipeg | |
| 2008 | of Shunga & Monsters, Le Gallery, Toronto, Canada |
| 2007 | of Manga & Mongrels, G+ Gallery, Toronto, Canada |
| 2006 | of Manga & Mongrels, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Canada |
Selected Joint Exhibitions
| 2026 | Fresh Air: New Acquisitions in Context, The McMichael Canadian Art Collection |
| 2025 | Qiu Anxiong & Howie Tsui: The Roaming Peach Blossom Spring, Richmond Art Gallery |
| 2024 | Reshaping Collections: Where History Meets Art, Chinese Canadian Museum, Vancouver,Canada |
| Immersive World, Ink+, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre | |
| Assembly, Australian Centre on China and the World, Canberra, Australia | |
| 2023 | Statistics of Fortune: Macao International Art Biennale, Macao Museum of Art |
| 20 | Mountains of the Mind, Ringling Museum of Art |
| 2022 | Outlaws, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia |
| 2021 | Stories that animate us, Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada |
| 「INK CITY」, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong | |
| 2019 | Spring!, Galerie LJ, Paris, France |
| Façade Festival, Vancouver Art Gallery and Burrard Arts Foundation | |
| 2018 | Luminocity, Kamloops Art Gallery |
| Diverse Voices from Vancouver,Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland | |
| 2015 | Bites Back, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China |
| Anatomica, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax | |
| 越界/粵界 (transgression/cantosphere), Centre A | |
| Out of Line, Oakville Galleries | |
| 2014 | Shine A Light: Canadian Biennial, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada |
| A Journal of the Plague Year – Islands Off the Shore of Asia, Para Site, Hong Kong | |
| Neo Folk, Ikkan Art International, Singapore | |
| Beside Yourself, Audain Art Centre, Vancouver, Canada | |
| 2013 | You Cannot Kill What is Already Dead, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto, Canada |
| A Clear Blazing Trail, Magic Pony Gallery, Toronto, Canada | |
| 2012 | Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past, Asian Art Musuem of San Francisco, USA |
| The Calendar’s Tales, 808 Gallery, Boston University School of Fine Arts | |
| Local Flora, Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa, Canada | |
| 2010 | Exploded View, Ottawa Art Gallery |
| Monster, West Vancouver Museum, Canada | |
| Par Chemin, Yves Laroche Galerie d’art, Montreal, Canada | |
| 2009 | Life Drawing, Narwhal Art Projects, Toronto, Canada |
| 2008 | Listen to your Heart, MOHS Exhibit, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| 2007 | The Pleasure, Jaime Torres Bodet Cultural Centre, Mexico City |
| 2006 | Fresh Start, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica |
| 2006 | I Am 8-Bit, Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, USA |
| 2005 | Enjoy Relax Happy, Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, USA |
| Then and Now, Gene Siskel Film Center of the Chicago Institute of Art, USA | |
| 2003 | Scatalogue: 30 Years of Crap in Contemporary Art, Galerie SAW Gallery, Ottawa, Canada |
Public Collections
| National Gallery of Canada |
| Art Gallery of New South Wales |
| Vancouver Art Gallery |
| Art Gallery of Ontario |
| Ottawa Art Gallery |
| Musée d’Art Contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul |
| Canada Council Art Bank |
| City of Ottawa |
| Global Affairs Canada (Embassy of Canada, Beijing) |
| M+, Hong Kong |
| RBC Art Collection |
| Ringling Museum |
| McMichael Canadian Art Collection |
| Art Continuum Hong Kong |
