Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA to Present Robert Zhao Renhui Solo Exhibition “After Control”

Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA will present “After Control,” a solo exhibition by Singapore-based artist Robert Zhao Renhui, from Saturday, May 16 to Sunday, July 12, 2026. Robert Zhao Renhui, born in Singapore in 1983, works across photography, video, installation, and other media to explore relationships between humans, other living beings, and nature. Based on sustained research into environments shaped by human management and the organisms that inhabit them, Zhao has produced numerous works that carefully depict and critically examine the complex entanglement and transformation of nature and the artificial. This exhibition presents works based on long-term projects conducted on Christmas Island, Singapore, Tokyo, Hampi in India, and Phuket in Thailand, offering a comprehensive introduction to Zhao’s recent practice. Kyoto City University of Arts, the exhibition venue, is located near two rivers: the Kamo River, which repeatedly flooded since ancient times before taking on its present controlled form through large-scale postwar river improvement works, and the Takase River, which was excavated as a canal during the Edo period. Zhao has titled this exhibition “After Control” in response to this site, which carries a long history of coexistence between nature and humans. Outside the galleries, the surrounding area is in the midst of long-term redevelopment, where new buildings, construction sites, vacant lots, and aging structures coexist. This landscape overlaps with Zhao’s vision of the beautiful and vital diversity of beings that make up the living world and continue to thrive through their relationships with humans. Together, they invite deeper reflection on ecosystems across the planet and their possible futures. Robert Zhao Renhui is an artist from Singapore whose work examines how human systems affect the understanding, classification, and management of animals and landscapes. Using photography, video, installation, and publishing, he focuses on sites where ecosystems persist within environments transformed by urban development, abandonment, and regulation, investigating the fluid boundary between nature and the artificial. His long-term projects are grounded in extended field observation and research, tracing how animals inhabit landscapes shaped by human intervention, from Singapore’s secondary forests and uninhabited islands in Thailand to managed rural landscapes in the United Kingdom. Through these works, Zhao proposes that nature is never separate from human activity, but is continually produced through management, disturbance, and adaptation. Through The Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ), which he founded, he explores ecological knowledge and the politics of representation. His work has been shown at major international art festivals including the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Thailand Biennale, and Fotografiska Shanghai. Related events, including talks featuring the artist, will be held in conjunction with the exhibition. All events are free, with details to be announced on the gallery website. Exhibition details: Robert Zhao Renhui, “After Control”; dates: May 16 to July 12, 2026; hours: 10:00–18:00; closed Mondays; admission free; venue: Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA, 1F Building C, Kyoto City University of Arts, 57-1 Shimo-no-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto 600-8601. Organized by Kyoto City University of Arts. Curated by Mizuho Fujita, Chief Curator / Program Director, Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA. Exhibition URL: https://gallery.kcua.ac.jp/archives/2026/15093/. Contact: Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery @KCUA, https://gallery.kcua.ac.jp/, Tel. 075-585-2010. Photography: Kazuki Yoshimoto.