Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw

Biography

Born 1987 in Canada. Lives and works in Berlin and Edmonton.

Education:
2020-2021 – BPA// Berlin program for artists, Berlin
2014-2016 – Master of Fine Arts, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm
2015 – Master of Fine Arts (guest student), Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
2008-2013 – Bachelor of Fine Arts, Emily Carr University, Vancouver

Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw uses sculpture and installation as his primary means, working with discarded materials and found objects sourced from urban environments. Drawn from street corners, reuse shops, and sites of accumulation, these elements carry traces of previous use, which the artist reworks into hybrid, carefully constructed forms. Through processes of cutting, patching, and reassembling, Shaw displaces objects from their original context, allowing them to take on new associations.

His works merge fragments of different places and narratives, producing structures that feel both familiar and estranged, suspended between recognition and abstraction. Engaging with the overlooked details of cityscapes and public space, he invites a closer, more attentive way of looking. Borrowing from scenographic and museological strategies, he stages objects beyond their utilitarian function, transforming them into carriers of memory/models through which suppressed, unnoticed, or outmoded aspects of the environments we inhabit begin to resurface.

SELECTED SOLO / TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

2026
Art Basel Statements with Galeria Wschód, Basel

2025
Placeholders, Towards, Toronto
Instrument Cluster, Galeria Wschód, Warsaw

2024
Frieze London (Focus section) with Galeria Wschód, London

2023
Loose Leaves, Towards, Toronto
The Artist’s Eye, The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin
Swinging Door, Mimer – Norbergfestival, Norberg
NADA New York with Towards, New York

2022
Neither Parts, nor Spares, BPA// Raum, Berlin

2021
What Time Has Left, Galeria Wschód, Warsaw
Liste Basel with Galeria Wschód, duo show with Anders Dickson, Basel

2020
Memory Loss, Coyote, Stockholm

2018
Can There Be Forgiveness?, Ashley, Berlin
Pledge, SOX, Berlin
F-150, Polansky Gallery, Prague
Benevolent Nerves, Galerija 427, Riga

2017
Vinegar Stone & The Language of Flowers, Towards, Toronto

2016
Undilutable Slang Truth, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm

2015
Internal Climates, duo show with Emma LaMorte, Sunset Terrace, Vancouver

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
Still, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver
Schrödingers Katze, Kunstverein Gastgarten, Hamburg

2023
Obsession II, Galeria Wschód, Warsaw
Warsaw Spring, Galeria Wschód, Warsaw

2022
Set Phosphenes, Studio for Artistic Research, Düsseldorf

2021
BPA// Exhibition, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Casa Uovo, Sangt Hipolyt, Berlin
The Forage, Æ, Berlin
Vigil, Friend of a Friend with Emanuel Layr and Wschód, Warsaw

2020
Condo Complex London with Galeria Wschód, Union Pacific, London
This is Fair, NADA, Online Exhibition

2019
But Doctor, I am Pagliacci, The Loon, Toronto
Uttran II, Uttran Lake, Rönninge
Schrein der Freundschaft, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam, Potsdam

2018
At the End of the Game You Will Be Forgotten, Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York
In Commerce Court, Main Street, Toronto
Don’t Come In, Winterfeldt 31, Berlin
That Man An, Yamet Silmaz, Amsterdam
Jugend ist Trunkenheit Ohne Wein, Bikini Space, Basel

2017
Grounds for Magical Thinking, J Hammond Projects, London
Gabinete De Moda, A Maior at Gabinete, Lisbon
Let’s see, where were we? In the pit of despair, De Ateliers, Amsterdam
Kamias Triennial, Kamias Special Projects, Kamias City
Period Pieces (A Sunset Terrace Retrospective), Projet Pangée, Montreal

2016
The Apartment – Peach, W139, Amsterdam
Dinner Room Terravore, Oslo10, Basel
The First Story Ever Told, Krets, Malmö
Navigating. Items for a place without historical center…, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Life ist Life Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Berlin, Garret Grimoire, Berlin
Collect Yourself, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm
Stipendiat-Utställningen, Konstakademien, Stockholm

SELECTED PROJECTS

2018
Clerks’ Quarters (with performances by Angharad Williams; Economy of Meaning),
Pogo Bar, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Clerks’ Quarters II – Lite REO (with performance by Acting Press), Ashley, Berlin

2015
Veins of Gypsum Mortar (co-curated with Viktor Briestensky), Ashley, Berlin

RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
2023 – Concept to Realization, Canada Council for the Arts
2023 – NEUSTARTplus, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2022 – Neustart Kultur, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2021 – Research and Creation, Canada Council for the Arts
2021 – Recherchestipendium Bildende Kunst, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin
2021 – Ars Viva Prize – Shortlist Nominee
2021 – Neustart Kultur, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn
2020 – BPA// Berlin Program for Artists, Berlin
2018 – Production grant, Embassy of Canada, Berlin
2018 – Mobility Funding, Nordic Culture Point, Helsinki
2016 – Stig Hedbergs Stipendiefond, Stockholm
2016 – ‘2016 – Eva; Hugo Bergmans Fond’, Stockholm
2016 – Summer Symposium, Sikås Art Center, Sikås
2015 – Nomadic Duchamp with Hinrich Sachs; Lisi Raskin, The Tyler School, Philadelphia
2015 – The Institute of Investigative Living with Andrea Zittel, A-Z West, Joshua Tree
2015 – Performance Proletarians with Benjamin Valenza, Andquestionmark, Stockholm