Born in Chongqing, 1989, Tong Wenmin still lives and works there. She received her BFA at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2012. Her work often focuses on the intersection between individual perception and the external environment, stimulating visual poetry and inspiring action through behaviors that at first seem counter-intuitive. Through often simplified or regulated movements, her work hints at the allegorical character of the body and action within a semantically rich context.

Tong launched the “Ruins Project” in 2020, employing performance videos, on-site performances, paintings, installations and other methods and media to explore the internalization and externalization of ruins. Working on this project, Tong noticed wild plants’ will to survive and started to collect plants that grew in different regions. Through a long process of sun exposure, she “imprinted” these plant patterns on her body, ceremonially imbuing her body with their spirits. And then, she started a journey of a series of walking and performance from Manzhao Village in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan to Qiyue Mountain in Lichuan, Hubei. This work was presented at the solo exhibition “From South to North” at Macalline Center of Art (MACA) in Beijing, 2022. Tong won the Grand Jury Prize of Huayu Youth Award (2018), the First Prize of the 8th New Star Art Award (2018), Nomination Prize of the 5th Contemporary Sculpture Award (2017), the Accolade Artist by Documentaries of Chinese Performance Art (2016). She has also been selected for The Swiss Arts Council Artists Residency, Switzerland (2021); Offshore Residency, Dinawan, Malaysia (2019), among other residency projects.