Photo by Albert Barbu.
Yambe Tam is an Asian-American visual artist based in Oxfordshire and London. She creates virtual worlds and sculptural installations that contemplate impermanence and the unknown in our environment and within ourselves.
Often using game engines and new technologies, she invokes the sacred seriousness of play while expanding the sensorium to other experiences of consciousness on microscopic to planetary scales.
These interactive and immersive experiences draw upon scientific research, gaming, and Zen monastic practice to merge human, animal, and machine into new depths of communion, heralding the post-human age. They require the presence and participation of the viewer, pushing the boundaries of digital and installation art into the fields of spiritual practice, gaming, and experimental research.
Her work has been exhibited at institutions including FACT, Liverpool (2021); Two Temple Place, London (2023); the Korean Cultural Centre, Berlin & London (2022-23); the Science Museum, London (2024), the Royal Society of Sculptors, London (2023); Attenborough Art Centre, Leicester (2021); the Barbican Arts Trust, London (2021); and gaming festivals WASD Curios (2022) and The Leftfield Collection, EGX Rezzed (2020). She has held events and workshops at the Big Data Institute, University of Oxford (2023); The Bayes Centre, Edinburgh (2024); and spoken at the Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University (2024). She has been artist in residence with Jerwood Arts/FACT Digital Fellowship, Liverpool (2021); the Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, University of Oxford (2022-23); Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester (2023); and Visiting Fellow in Visual Arts at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh (2023-24). She is currently developing a new interactive VR experience as part of the UK’s Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub (CO2RE) Artists, Arts & Humanities Initiative.
EDUCATION + CREDENTIALS
Ojukai, Kanshoji Monastery, Dordogne, FR (2019). Led by Rev. Minamizawa Zenji.
MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2018). Distinction.
BFA Painting / Art History, Theory & Criticism, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland (2012). Summa cum laude.
SOLO + DUO EXHIBITIONS
International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK, Shadow of Unknowing, permanent installation, November 2024
Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities/Fusion Arts, Oxford, UK, Merging Minds, May 2023
Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, Cosmic Garden, September - November 2021
Barbican Arts Trust, London, UK, Musica Universalis, September 2019
Raum Z13, Essen, Germany, Eternal Return, March - April 2019
Indianapolis International Airport, Indianapolis, USA, Transcendence, August - December 2015
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
The Art House, Wakefield, UK, Gilbert Bayes Award 2022, July - August 2023
Royal Society of Sculptors, London, UK, Gilbert Bayes Award 2022, May - July 2023
Two Temple Place, London, UK, Inside, January - February 2023
2022
Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, UK, Begin Again, November 2022 - January 2023
Koreanisches Kulturzentrum, Berlin, DE, Begin Again, July - August 2022
Broomhill Estate Sculpture Gardens, Barnstaple, UK, In Harmony, June 2022 - April 2023
WASD, Tobacco Dock, London, UK, WASD Curios, April 2022
2021
Artsformation, Online, Liverpool, and Amsterdam, Transformer Summit: Framework for Trust, September 2021
Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK, Uncertain Data, September - October 2021
Lewisham Art House, London, UK, Entanglements in Time, curated by Kristine Tan & Mariana Lemos, August 2021
City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, SI, When in Doubt, Go To A Museum, January - May 2021
2020
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bournemisza, Madrid, ES, How to Tread Lightly: st_age expanded, October 2020 - January 2021
Ocean Space, Venice, IT; st_age, online, freq_wave, commissioned by TBA21-Academy, August 2020
Subsidiary Projects, London, UK, The Potion Room, February 2020
2019
Safehouse 2, London, UK, The Invisible, April 2019
2018
Barbican Arts Group Trust, London, UK, Artworks Open, selected by Tai Shani and Emma Talbot, November 2018
Gallery 46, London, UK, The Salamander Devours Its Tail Twice, October 2018
2016
Holtzman Center for the Arts Galleries, Towson University, Towson, MD, Mission Universe, May 2016
2013
VisArts Center, Rockville, MD, Mixtopias, curated by Fletcher Mackey, April 2013
FESTIVALS, EVENTS + PERFORMANCES
Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, 7th Annual Black Hole Initiative Conference, May 2024
The Science Museum, London, UK, The Maths Summit, March 2024
International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh & Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, Visualising 4D Workshop, January 2024
Chrysalis Arts Development, Gargrave, UK, Glacial Procession, September 2023
Royal Society of Sculptors, London, UK, Sculpture Slam, June 2023
Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, Multi-mind Games, February 2023
WASD, London, UK, Curios, April 2022
Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, Black Hole Meditation, October 2021
Verizon 5G Labs & WXR Fund, online, Women of Spatial Summit, August 2020
EGX Rezzed, London, UK, The Leftfield Collection, March 2020
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tarasova, Olga, “Inside: Incorporeality of Art and Architecture”, Trebuchet, 3 May 2023.
“Q&A with New Cinema Days artist, Yambe Tam”, Abandon Normal Devices, 17 April 2023.
“New Indie Games: Our Picks from W.A.S.D. Curios”, PCGamesN, 6 April 2022.
Kirk-Smith, Patrick, “Review: Uncertain Data: a brief meditation at FACT”, Art in Liverpool, 1 Oct 2021.
Binns, Leah, “Uncertain Data”, Corridor8, 30 Sept 2021.
Lemos, Mariana, “Curators Conversations: Entanglements in Time”, Mercurius Magazine, 15 Aug 2021.
Zyman, Daniela and TBA21-Academy, eds., Oceans Rising. A Companion to Territorial Agency’s Oceans in Transformation, Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2021.
RESIDENCIES + FELLOWSHIPS
Cove Park, Argyll and Bute, UK, 2024
Visiting Fellowship in Visual Arts, International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh & Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK 2023-24
New Cinema Days, Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester, UK, 2023
The Art Depot, Chrysalis Arts, Gargrave, UK, 2023
Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, 2022-23
Thorp Stavri x Two Temple Place, London, UK, 2022
Jerwood Arts / FACT Digital Fellowship, Liverpool, UK, 2020-21
SELECTED AWARDS
Artists, Arts & Humanities Initiative, The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub (CO2RE), Oxford & London, UK, 2025-26
a-n Artists Bursaries, a-n The Artists Information Company, London, UK (2023)
Soho Fellowship, 180 House, Soho House, London UK, 2023
Gilbert Bayes Award (2022), Royal Society of Sculptors, London, UK, 2021
National Lottery Project Grant, Arts Council England, London, UK, 2020, 2021
Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, USA, 2020
Artist + Activist Grant, The Soze Foundation, New York, USA, 2020
Developing Your Creative Practice Grant, Arts Council England, London, UK, 2019
First Place, Barbican Arts Group Trust Artworks Open, London, UK, 2018
William & Dorothy Yeck Award, Hiestand Galleries, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 2015