Katie Paterson

Katie Paterson (b. 1981, Scotland; lives and works in Scotland) holds a BA (Hons) from Edinburgh College of Art and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Paterson collaborates with scientists and researchers across the world on projects that consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time and change. Her artworks use sophisticated technologies and specialist expertise to stage intimate, poetic, and philosophical engagements between people and their natural environment. Combining a Romantic sensibility with a research-based approach, conceptual rigor, and minimalist presentation, her work collapses the distance between the viewer and the most distant edges of time and the cosmos.

Paterson has broadcast the sounds of a melting glacier live, mapped dead stars, compiled an archive of darkness from the depths of the Universe, created a light bulb to simulate moonlight, and sent a recast meteorite back into space. Understated in gesture yet monumental in scope, her work elicits feelings of humility, wonder, and melancholy.

Paterson has exhibited internationally, and her works have been included in major exhibitions at Turner Contemporary, Hayward Gallery, Tate Britain, Kunsthalle Wien, MCA Sydney, Guggenheim Museum, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. She won the Visual Arts category of the South Bank Awards and is an Honorary Fellow of Edinburgh University.

Zhang Yao

Zhang Yao studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts from 2008 to 2015, earning a bachelor's degree in Art History and a master's degree in Fine Arts. She joined UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in 2021 and currently serves as Assistant Curator and Project Manager. She lives and works in Shanghai.

Recent exhibitions Zhang has curated include “Improvisational Drift: New Directions in Ceramics” (UCCA Clay, Yixing, 2025); “The Ways of Clay: Select Award-Winning Works from the International Ceramics Festival Mino of the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan” (UCCA Clay, Yixing, 2024); and “World Weather Network – Zhao Xiaoxiao: Cloud Atlas” (theTANG, Qinhuangdao, 2022).

Her co-curated exhibitions include “Raw Modernism: Accolay Clay Today” (UCCA Clay, Yixing, 2026); “Yangyun & Donum Art Festival (Yangyun, Shanghai, 2026); “Ahmed Mater: Antenna” (UCCA Edge, Shanghai, 2025); and “Common Ground: UCCA 15th Anniversary Patrons Collection Exhibition” (UCCA, Beijing, 2022).

As Project Manager at UCCA, she has overseen major exhibitions including “Matisse by Matisse” (UCCA Edge, Shanghai, 2023); and “Modern Time: Masterpieces from the Collection of Museum Berggruen / Nationalgalerie Berlin” (UCCA Edge, Shanghai, 2023); among others.

In addition to her curatorial work, Zhang is a writer whose articles and essays have been published in Wallpaper*, The Art Journal, and Art China.

The British Council is the UK’s international culture and education organisation. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 150 countries and territories, and reach over 700 million people.

www.britishcouncil.org