Born in Inner Mongolia, China, 1984, Nabuqi lives and works in Beijing. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2013. Whether it is what we perceive as real, or the psychological nature of how we engage with objects and material, all of these are running threads throughout the works of Nabuqi. Ranging from handmade sculptures to installations made from assembling readymades, there is a pull for the viewer to engage with detail and context, to be attuned to and reflect upon the spectrum between artificial and actual. As such, Nabuqi creates realms that prompt our understanding of the world around us and engage us in a play of spatial politics. Through addressing the familiar—nature, domesticity—the viewer is more deeply engaged in considering “presence”, how one perceives what is in front of them at present, what it was before and will be in the future. Nabuqi’s elaborate installations thus point to our epistemological idiosyncrasies and prompt, with wit and theatricality, a reflection on our constructed norms.

Nabuqi’s work has been widely exhibited in notable international exhibitions including: “Nabuqi: A Question is Also a Form of Sculpture” (M WOODS 798, Beijing, 2024); “Everything goes back to square one” (West Bund Museum, Shanghai, 2022); “Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity” (Asia Society Museum, New York, 2022); the 1st Diriyah Biennial “Feeling the Stones” (2021); “Noire Lumière” (HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, 2020); “Study of Things. Or A Brief Story about Fountain, Brick, Tin, Coin, Wax, Stone, Shell, Curtain and Body” (Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, 2020); the 58th Venice Biennale “May You Live In Interesting Times” (2019); “Cold Nights” (UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2017); “Absent Paragraph” (Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag, 2017); “Any Ball” (CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, 2017); the 11th Shanghai Biennale “Why Not Ask Again: Arguments, Counter-arguments, and Stories” (2016) and the 11th Gwangju Biennale “The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?)” (2016). She was nominated for the 2016 Art Sanya Huayu Youth Award.