Huiyi Xiao is a Chinese-Australian artist working across performative video, installation, and photography as somatic inquiries into the diasporic condition. As a first-generation migrant, she investigates how cultural and political forces are internalized, resisted, and rewritten within the diasporic body. Employing a somatic, auto-ethnographic methodology, she transforms lived experience into constellations of metaphorical and psychologically charged body-installations and performances. Her work renders visible the invisible weight of ideology and economic systems—the often unspoken pressures that shape diasporic physical and psychological realities. Education
2025 Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (1st Class Honours), RMIT University, Melbourne
2021 - 2024 Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art and Visual Culture) (with Distinction), Curtin University, Perth
Solo exhibition
2026 Oil & Fire, RMIT First Site Gallery, Melbourne
Group exhibitions
2026 Mandorla Art Award Exhibition, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth
ACAR Art Prize Exhibition, ACAR Arts Centre, Sydney
Emerging Artist Beat, Creative Asia Arts Centre, Melbourne
Worn, Untether Gallery, Geelong
2025 Experimental Print Prize Exhibition, Castlemaine Art Museum, Castlemaine
Bread & Butter, I Squared Gallery, Melbourne
Chaotic, tangled, alive, RMIT Site Eight Gallery, Melbourne
Summer Small Works & Prize Show, Caelene nee Glen Gallery, Melbourne
Awards
2026 Mandorla Art Award Finalist, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth
ACAR Art Prize Finalist, ACAR, Sydney
2025 Vice Chancellor’s List for Academic Excellence, RMIT, Melbourne
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, RMIT, Melbourne
Art for Social Change Mentorship Award, RMIT, Melbourne
Travel Scholarship Award, RMIT, Melbourne
Associate Dean’s Award for Photo Innovation, RMIT, Melbourne
Experimental Print Prize Finalist, Castlemaine Art Museum, Castlemaine
Summer Small Works Sponsorship Prize, Caelene nee Glen Gallery, Melbourne