Xiaohan Jiang is a painter and poet based in Chicago. Born in Hebei, China, she moved to Suzhou at the age of nine. Her work investigates the intersection of painting and poetry, drawing from the pastoral landscapes of her childhood in Northern China. Through allegorical imagery, she constructs a spiritual realm where poetry becomes a vessel for transformation and where image and text continually transmute. Her practice engages themes of identity, redemption, and belonging, shaped by the tension between personal memory and cultural dualities.
Jiang received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022 and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the same institution in 2025. She is now teaching at SAIC.
Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally, including Nguyen Wahed Gallery (New York), Washington Studio School Gallery, (Washington, DC), Bonian Space (Beijing), Riverside Art Center (Chicago), Unveil Gallery (Irvine), Patient Info Gallery (Chicago), Art Clvb (Detroit), and 4C Gallery (Los Angeles). In 2022, she presented her first solo exhibition, Lowland Delusion, at Août Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon.
C.V.
Education
2025 Master of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2022 Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Solo Exhibition
2022 Lowland Delusion, Août Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Why Paint? II, Washington studio school Gallery, Washington, DC
2025 Threshold in Relation, Nguyen Wahed Gallery, New York, NY
Terrain Biennial DIY 2025: Taking Shape, Metiche Projects, Chicago, IL
PAUSE, Riverside Art Center, Chicago, IL
Just Beyond the Sight, BONIAN SPACE, Beijing, China
A Clover and One Bee, Unveil Gallery, Irvine, CA
2024 Open Call Exhibition 2024, Paintingsince2000, Online
Annual Open Call, MEPAINTSME, Online
Dance This Mess Around , Patient Info Gallery, Chicago, IL
2023 BETA I , Art Clvb, Detroit, MI
4C Exhibition 2023 Q4-Boundaries, 4C Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Abnormal: Experimental Duplication, Inky Pixel, Guangzhou & Xi'an, China
2021 Redirecting, Tree Art Museum, Beijing, China
Group Show, SHRINE, Online
Awards
2025 Innovate Grant, Art Honorable Mention
2024 Myma Artist Grant, December Honorable Mention
New American Paintings, Emerging Artist Grant
Publications
2025 Meaning Aches, Threshold in Relations at Nguyen Wahed Gallery, TUSSLE Magazine
VISUAL ATELIER 8, Xiaohan Jiang painting and poetry shaped by memory and spirituality
Xiaohan Jiang’s plaintive pastoral landscapes, Lori Waxman, Chicago Reader
2024 Suboart Magazine, August Issue 27
Visionary Art Collective, Xiaohan Jiang: Nostalgic Connections
Artsin Square Magazine, Issue 6
AI-Tiba9 Art Magazine, Issue 15, Featured Artist
2023 2023 Q4 边界 Boundaries, Yangyang Li 黎扬扬, Atron Net 雅昌艺术网
2022 Illustration for Must Praise, Long Poetry, Xiaohe Su, South Korea
2018 Sohu Education Salon: The Gift: Selected Poems of Xiaohan Jiang 2004-2015, Book Launch, Beijing
2017 The Gift: Selected Poems of Xiaohan Jiang 2004-2015, Shanghai Educational Publishing House
Collection
2022 A Box of Wonders and Delights, Department of Print Media, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dough Press RA 5.05. Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection.
Artist Talk
2025 Riverside Arts Center, Pause, Freeark Gallery, Chicago, IL
SAIC Graduate Talk, Chicago, IL
Artist talk with Mangila, Dominic Enriquez's class from Indiana University, Chicago, IL
Professional Experience
2025-2026 Lecturer, Painting Practice, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2024 Teaching Assistant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago for:
Painting Practice, Professor: Dan Devening
Painting Multi-level: The Abstract Image, Professor: Richard Hull
