Robert Zhao Renhui

“ Please come visit me! “ In Takaragaike Park, Kyoto, I came across these notices for a goose that died in 2017. Apparently there were once two geese in the pond, said to be brothers. One died first. The other continued living there alone for years, becoming like a resident of the park. When he died, they put up a notice saying he had safely reached heaven and reunited with the older brother he had longed for. Another notice later announced that the “Takaragaike Goose” had returned to the park as a taxidermy specimen inside the Children’s Paradise office. At the bottom it says: “Please come visit me.”

After Control opened this Saturday at Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA , curated by Mizuho Fujita @mizfoujita , and runs until 12 July 2026. The exhibition first emerged from an essay I wrote for TE Editions, @te.editions launched this month, titled The Lives of Others: Writing Animals Across Landscapes of Control. While writing it, I began noticing how many of my projects over the last decade returned to similar situations — animals inhabiting managed landscapes, rivers hidden within infrastructure, forests emerging from disturbance, or life continuing quietly within systems built for other purposes. Bringing together works developed across Singapore, Christmas Island, Tokyo, Hampi, Phuket, and elsewhere, this is also the first time I am seeing many of these projects together in the same space. Seeing them assembled here made me realise how closely connected they have always been. Alongside the exhibition, I will also be conducting a two-day workshop with artists at Kyoto City University of Arts titled After Control: Field Notes. Many thanks to Mizuho Fujita and everyone at @kcua_gallery for patiently bringing these different works and landscapes together. It was really enjoyable slowly thinking through the exhibition together over the past months. I would also like to thank Stephanie Rosenthal/Biennale of Sydney and @ntu_ccasingapore for supporting the Christmas Island works, Charles & Keith @deborahkrish for the Tokyo residency / Deer of Tokyo, @theinstitutum and @hampiartlabs for supporting Threshold in India, @arinrungjang and @hera_sc at the @thailand_biennale for the Ko Lon / Phuket project, and @slee.whitworth and the @gwangjubiennale for commissioning Trying to Remember a River.

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱-𝗨𝗽: May 2026 Warin Lab Contemporary (@warinlab ) presents an archive exhibition, 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: 5 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘣, reflecting on their five-year journey at their current location. Housed within the century-old former residence of Dr. Boonsong Lekagul (1907 to 1992), a pioneering Thai wildlife conservationist, the gallery programme is an ongoing exploration of environmental themes through a wide range of artistic perspectives and practices. Bringing together a curated selection of works from 28 past exhibitions, the show invites audiences to consider how a living ecology of works can continue to evolve beyond their original contexts. This is an entry in A&M’s May 2026 Round-Up. Click on the link in profile to read the full selection. 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: 5 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘣 is on view until 16 May 2026 at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok, Thailand. Robert Zhao Renhui (@robert_zhao ), 𝘙𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢 𝘫𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢, 1922, 29082014, 2024, inkjet print on paper, 40 x 40cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Warin Lab Contemporary.

Thank you @thingbooks.co for inviting @thumb.books and me to @tokioartbookfair . Its was a really nice art book fair with an amazing audience! Met many new friends and caught up with old friends! An opportunity to observe how books behave when circulated in the wild. Thanks to @laiyutong_things for the design and experience of the set up on the circular table, the circular table by the fair resisted standard display; Yutong responded with multiple circular mats and stacked layers, redistributing attention across the surface.

The Thailand Biennale, Phuket 2025 continues to be on view until 30 April, 2026. The theme of Thailand Biennale, Phuket 2025, “Eternal [Kalpa]”, points to the enduring connection between humans and nature across different times. The biennale addresses many challenges of our coexistence with others, made urgent by failings of technology, ecology and economy. In response to the theme, Robert Zhao presents a series of photographs and a video work “Where the Caterpillar Ends”. Instead of focusing on the hustle and bustle of human activity and real estate development, Zhao foregrounds an abandoned hotel, built in the early 2000s, now overtaken by forest growth Once a thriving luxury destination, the island now hosts fewer than ten residents, with most homes abandoned or left to nature’s reclamation. Zhao also observed an aging rubber plantation, its trees over forty years old, now transformed into a full-fledged forest. @robert_zhao @thailand_biennale

Thailand Biennale Phuket 2026 Venue: Baan Turtle Phuket, Bege Artists: Anuwat Apimukmongkon, Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, TOQA(Isable Sicat), Robert Renhui Zhao Directors: Arin Rungjang, David Teh Curator: Hera Chan, Marisa Phandharakrajadej #supernormalstudio #arthandler #arthandling #artexhibition #exhibitiondesign #exhibitioncontractor #exhibitionconsultant #artpreparators #contemporaryart #galleryservices #artfabrication #artfabricators #thailandbiennalephuket2025 #phuket #anuwatapimukmongkon #toqa #robertrenhuizhao #tunwinaungandwahnu

In frame: “Shard 44” and “Shard 37” by Robert Zhao, now on view at Appetite as part of our ongoing exhibition. “The symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum”. (Philip K Dick) In “Shard 44” and “Shard 37”, artist Robert Zhao captures the profound transformations that emerge from layers of waste and decay, and invites us to imagine anew the relationship between humanity and nature. These evocative images are in fact magnified photographs of tiny glass shards – the remnants of human activity – that the artist discovered scattered around the ground of the forest near the Gillman Barracks art enclave. Over time, rain and mud have weathered these shards, and nature has made its home inside and around them, creating beautiful and otherworldly fragments that capture an ongoing metamorphosis, and the dynamic relationship between the human and more-than-human worlds. Appetite is open on Saturdays from 12-5pm for art visitors. Come by to see these, and other artworks, in person, or DM to book a viewing by appointment.

At ART SG (@art.sg ), the collaboration between The Institutum (@theinstitutum ) and Hampi Art Labs brought lens-based and media art exploring Hampi's ecology into focus through dialogue and display. The talk 'Building Bridges: Creating Cultural Exchange Through Residency Programs' featured Meera Curam (@mcuram ), Robert Zhao Renhui (@robert_zhao ) and Atul Bhalla (@atulbhallastudio2 ) in conversation with moderator Alessio Antoniolli (@alessio_antoniolli ), reflecting on how residency programmes enable sustained cross-cultural exchange. At the booth, the two artists presented parallel readings of the same landscape. Robert Zhao's long-term observations around Hampi trace animal life persisting across ruins, grasslands and mining zones, while Atul Bhalla's works engage with stone and mineral surfaces, attentive to geological materiality.

Beyond his presentation at SEA Focus 2026, Robert Zhao Renhui @robert_zhao unfolds a series of parallel exhibitions across Singapore Art Week, extending his ongoing investigation on human’s relationship with nature. “Hampi, Red Rocks, and Hanuman: Atul Bhalla and Robert Zhao Renhui” Date: 22 - 25 Jan 2026 Location: The Institutum Booth, Art SG, Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre @art.sg @atulbhallastudio2 @hampiartlabs @theinstitutum “OH! Moonstone: Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same (2026)” Date: 18 – 25 Jan 2026 Location: Moonstone Lane, Art Walk Fee: $40 donation/pax (SG Culture Pass credits can be used) @ohopenhouse “Wan Hai Hotel: Singapore Strait” Date: 20 - 31 Jan 2026 Location: The Warehouse Hotel, 320 Havelock Rd @art.sg @thewarehousehotel Catch Robert Zhao Renhui’s works across Singapore Art Week and explore these exhibitions citywide before it ends!

Placing ceramic water bowls for animals is a common practice during the dry season in Hampi. This bowl was set in a grass field beside an open temple and monitored using a fixed camera trap. The footage records animals returning to drink at different times, beside a temple, for a period of 8 months. The site sits within a landscape of ruins, rocky outcrops, and active steel-mining areas. I’m showing new work at @art.sg — part of a presentation co-developed with @atulbhallastudio2 through a collaboration between @hampiartlabs (a residency based near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hampi, Karnataka) and @theinstitutum in Singapore.

I’m showing new work at @art.sg — part of a presentation with @atulbhallastudio2 through a collaboration between @hampiartlabs (a residency based near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hampi, Karnataka) and @theinstitutum in Singapore. My works emerge from long-term observation in and around Hampi — from sloth bears moving through rocky terrain and grasslands, to wildlife persisting near ruins, townships, and active steel mines. Shot across different sites, the images trace how animal life adapts and endures within landscapes shaped by extraction, habitation, and deep time. Together with Atul’s work on stone and mineral surfaces, the presentation brings two parallel readings of the same landscape into dialogue — one attentive to geological weight, the other to animal presence and survival. Catch this and more from my Hampi research at ART SG 2026, 23–25 January, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Many thanks to @theinstitutum @hampiartlabs @mcuram @atulbhallastudio2

Extending his long-term engagement with secondary forests, Robert Zhao Renhui presents Owl Archive (2025), a sculptural installation comprising images drawn from a long-term photographic record of a buffy fish owl inhabiting a concrete drainage system at Gillman Barracks. The four images—a feather, a World War II glass shard, a skeletal leaf, and the owl itself—are presented without hierarchy, treated as equal fragments from a single site. Rather than isolating the animal as a subject, Zhao observes how biological life, historical residue, and urban infrastructure coexist within a space engineered solely for water. The drain becomes a quiet archive where multiple temporalities settle and persist. By resisting interpretation or intervention, the work proposes humane agency as ethical witnessing—an attentiveness to forms of life that endure beyond visibility or human intent. See you soon at @seafocus @robert_zhao