Yi Xin Tong was born on Mount Lu, China. He works in New York and Shanghai. He studied geology at China University of Geosciences in Beijing and received an MFA in Studio Art from New York University. Tong creates multimedia installation, site-specific project, video, and sound to understand human culture’s dynamic relationship with nature. Compared with anthropocentric conservationism or utilitarian deep ecology, his exploratory, curious, and non-didactic work offers an attitude of “metaphysical kindness” to the environment, a Dao inclusive for humanity and other living and non-living beings. Tong’s work has been exhibited at the BRIC Biennial, New York, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, chi K11 art museum, Shanghai, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto , National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing and Today Art Museum, Beijing.

He is the winner of the first Choi Foundation Prize for Contemporary Art, a Franco-Chinese art prize dedicated to the links between contemporary creation and ecology, initiated in 2021 by the French Embassy in China and the Choi Foundation, in partnership with the Today Art Museum (Beijing) and the Palais de Tokyo.