Yan Wu
Yan Wu is a PhD pre-candidate in Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the Daniels Faculty. Her work spans curation, writing, and translation, focusing on the intersections of contemporary art practices, architecture, and the making of public space in urban settings. Her PhD research aims to develop new vocabularies and concepts for interpreting and engaging with public art through the framework of “play-space,” a theoretical construct inspired by Friedrich Schiller’s concept of the play drive (Spieltrieb) and Hannah Arendt’s notion of the “space of appearance.” Through this research, she seeks to propose practical models for curating and commissioning public art projects that respond to today’s built and natural environments, addressing contemporary social, cultural, technological, political, and ecological issues.
Alongside her PhD studies, Wu is the Public Art Curator for the City of Markham, where she recently oversaw the city’s first five-year public art master plan and co-curated the nine-week online summit Becoming Public Art. She is now managing its implementation, designing and curating district-level projects and programs that emphasize the role of the Rouge River in the city’s urban landscape and its diverse population, including the three-part project Lost and Found. Previously, Wu was the Curator-in-Residence at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto (2016–17), where she curated Making Models, Immaterial Architecture (online), and Miao Ying: A Field Guide to Ideology. She was also the Assistant Curator for the inaugural Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (2015), where she curated one of the site projects, Subtle Gestures, and Co-Curator for the Canada Pavilion at the fifth Bi-City Urbanism/Architecture Biennale in Shenzhen, China (2013). Her other upcoming curatorial projects include a site-specific public art installation by artist Scott Rogers for the cancer centre at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in 2025; an exhibition of artist Tom Dean’s early conceptual artworks and urban interventions from the 1970s at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in 2025; and artist Morris Lum’s solo exhibition, exploring the evolution of Chinatowns in a global context, at the McMaster Museum of Art and the Varley Art Gallery in 2026.
As a writer and translator, Wu has contributed to Canadian and Chinese art and architecture publications, including Artforum.cn, ArtReview Asia, World Art, Canadian Art, PUBLIC, and more. Wu was the English editor for the journal Time+Architecture at Tongji University in Shanghai, China, from 2016 to 2022. Since 2015, commissioned by the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Sui Jian Guo Art Foundation in Beijing, Wu has co-translated Chinese editions of seminal English-language works, including Rosalind Krauss’s Passages in Modern Sculpture (1977/2016), Lucy Lippard’s Six Years (1973/2018), Dan Graham’s Rock My Religion (1994/2018), and Formless by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss (1997/2021). Additionally, commissioned by the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, Wu co-translated John Cage’s Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel (1969/2020) into Chinese and wrote the Chinese text for the digital interactive online exhibition introducing Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise.
Born and raised in Shanghai, Wu moved to Canada in 2001. She holds a Bachelor of Computing from the University of Guelph and a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies from the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Her work has been supported by the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2022, Wu taught Interventions: Art in Public Places as a sessional lecturer at the Daniels Faculty.
PhD Advisors
Publications and Presentations
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2024: Catalogue essay, “Immaterial Architecture,” Annie MacDonell: A Beyond Within, co-published by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, SFU Galleries, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and Art Metropole: 43-49.
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2023: Catalogue essay, “The Work and the Magic, Jen Aitken and Yan Wu,” Jen Aitken: The Same Thing Looks Different, published by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery: 11-25.
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2022: Conference presentation, “An Emerging Public Art Program in an Emerging City,” Conference Ethical Public Art in Canada, Université de Montréal and Concordia University, Montreal.
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2022: Conference presentation, “Rosalind Krauss Taught Me to See” (in Chinese), Conference Octoberists and Criticism of Contemporary Art, Fudan University, China.
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2022: Conference presentation, “Infrastructure Development in Public Art Through Contemporary Art Thinking” (in Chinese), Conference The Practices of Public Art in Contemporary Art Museums, OCAT Museums, China.
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2021: Conference proceedings: “Translator as Viewer: Mirrored text and Me” (in Chinese) in Conceptual Lines: International Sculpture Conference Proceedings, ed. Sui Jianguo, Lu Pinjing, Sheng Wei (Guangzhou: Huacheng Publishing House): 186-193.
Academic and Professional Affiliations
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Public Art Curator, City of Markham
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Adjunct Member, Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University (2024-2025)
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