Hi,
I am Junxi (June-Shee).
My roots are in art and architecture, but my practice has evolved into a hybrid. Working as an artist, maker, grantmaker, strategist, and curator, I bridge institutional systems with hands-on creation.
My work is inspired by everyday conversations, ambient music, and books, alongside broader questions of open-source culture, tool democratization, and self-organization.
From designing funding mechanisms to experimenting with 3D printing and biomaterialsI love bringing people together to turn ideas into reality.
嗨，我是俊希。
我最初学的是艺术和建筑。如今，我的工作涉及艺术、设计、资助、组织策略与策展。我喜欢探索不同领域的可能性，也乐于连接人、资源与想法，让新的尝试得以发生。
我喜欢聊天、听氛围音乐、读书与散步，也常常从中获得灵感。我对开源文化、工具的普及与共享，以及自组织很感兴趣，也常常思考：人们如何借助工具、分享知识、彼此协作，让创造不再局限于少数人？
从设计资助机制到尝试 3D 打印与生物材料，我喜欢在思考与动手实践之间来回探索，也享受与不同背景的人一起，发现问题、尝试新方法。
University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy | Evidence to Impact: Behavioral Program Design & Evaluation Certificate, Summer 2026
Harvard Graduate School of Design | Certificate in Landscape Architecture, Summer 2018
Curatorial Project, Open Up: Can a city breathe? 010 Beijing Natural, Beijing
2021
Curatorial Project, Neri&Hu: Works in Permanent Evolution,
College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai
2019
Group Show, The Plant Show, Groundlevel Platform, Chicago
Group Show, Shelter for Soul, Seoul Hall Of Urbanism & Architecture, Seoul
Group Show, Visual Arts Exhibition, Luminarts Culture Foundation, Chicago
2018
Group Show, Living Architecture, 6018 North, Chicago
Group Show, Designer Artist Citizen Site: Exploring Belonging, Università Ca’Foscari, Venice
*Partner program of the United State Pavillon in 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
Group Show, Undergraduate Exhibition, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago
2017
Curatorial Project and Research Project, Flipping the Garden, Joan Flasch Artists Book Collections, Chicago
2016
Group Show, Sabina Ott--Who Cares for the Sky, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
Research & Analysis: Research (Contemporary Design & Architecture, Gender Studies), Writing & Editing, Data Synthesis, Visual Analysis.
Project & Program Management: Cross-functional Collaboration, Grant Management & Compliance, Stakeholder Engagement, Event Coordination.
Communication: Bilingual Communication, Cross-Cultural & Interpersonal Communication, Narrative Development.
Fabrication: Architectural Model Making, Woodworking, Papermaking, Screenprinting, Etching, Soldering (Basic), 3D Printing, Laser Cutting.
Software: Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Adobe InDesign (Basic), Adobe Photoshop (Basic), Adobe Bridge (Basic), SketchUp (Basic), Google Workspace (Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive).
AI related: Gemini (certificated via coursea), Design with AI (certificated via IDEO)
Languages: Chinese (Native), English (Fluent - Oral & Written
Kamau Patton, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Iker Gil, MAS Context
Ann Lui, Future Firm
Matt Ferchen, Ford Foundation
Carol Yinghua Lu, Inside Out Art Museum
James Pike, Graham Foundation
"rapid progress always comes from slow work."
Last Updated 24.10.31
The GRID (2017)
#Site Specific Installation#soldering #urbanoberservation #Khrushchevka #ModernChina #socialhousing #hopscotch
In 2017, I returned to the residential compound of my childhood just before its demolition. I have always been intrigued by the site's geometry—a 1980s Soviet-influenced style defined by a rigid grid system.
Under the Danwei (work unit) system, housing was considered a welfare benefit rather than a commodity. This standardization extended even to the ground, paved with uniform 1-by-1 meter tiles.
However, the strict grid wasn't just a constraint. I have vivid memories of playing hopscotch on these tiles with friends—appropriating the ready-made grid for our own joy. We turned a system of order into a playground. In summer 2017, I created this installation to mark that intersection of structure and play, right before it disappeared.
[More..]
Mycelium Running (2018)
#papermaking #artandscience #bacteriagrowing #artistsbook #craft # Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 #ecological exploration #connections
In 2018, I joined the Illinois Mycological Association by accident, where I became fascinated by mycelium—an organism defined not by the individual, but by the network. I was struck by the idea that fungi do not die from aging, but from a loss of connection.
While mycelium forms an invisible, underground web that channels nutrients to sustain the entire forest, our human society was becoming increasingly fixated on visible borders and rigid definitions of citizenship.
Created during a time of intense political struggle over immigration, this work asks: As an 'alien' in American society facing these barriers:
what can I learn from the borderless, life-sustaining connectivity of mycelium?
How can I cultivate connection in service of others?
[More..]
Travelogue I (2019)
#3D Printing, #DigitalModeling #ArcGIS #papermaking #screenprinting #artistbook#rhinos #connections
I have long been fascinated by the concept of the artist’s book, having created them for years without a single written word. Integrating my travelogues now feels like initiating a biological process. In this project, I revisit five distinct landscapes with my travel stories: the vertical energy of New York City, the raw ether of Reykjavik, the layered history of Brussels, the aquatic mirrors of Venice, and the spiritual heights of Gannan.
Memory is a form of slow fermentation; it does not stay preserved in a vacuum. It breathes, ages, and evolves, taking on a life of its own long after the journey ends. Through screenprinting, 3D modeling, and papermaking, I give these memories a physical home. Regardless of the medium, as long as the imagination remains vital, the core of the work remains unshakable.
[More..]
Travelogue II (2019)
#photography #Collection #Mail Arts #Collage
I have reframed the project as a 'distributed travelogue.' Instead of returning from a journey with souvenirs, I collect the overlooked debris of the city—dryer lint, faded receipts, street grit—and mail them to friends who have migrated away.
I encase these mundane relics in slide mounts, turning them into portable anchors for the displaced. Through this act, the travelogue evolves from a singular, private document into a shared, living network. I am asserting that my city’s map is not a static grid, but an elastic membrane—it stretches across the globe, surviving wherever we perform our quiet rituals of memory.
[More..]
Making the invisible visible, and the fragile permanent (2019)
#papermaking #molding&casting #materialsensibility #materialexperiment #MaterialInnovation #CompositeStudy #ConcreteCasting #Prototyping
I have attended Architect ZHANG Ke’s lecture and amazed by his concrete experiements in his architecture project. Drawing inspirations from the building enviroment of traditional residential areas in Beijing.
An experiment in contrasting materialities.
I juxtaposed the warmth and texture of handmade paper with the cold permanence of cast concrete. By embedding the formed paper into the aggregate, I created a hybrid object that is simultaneously structural and delicate. It challenges the binary of "construction material" vs. "art material," seeking a synthesis where the structure protects the fragility within.
[More..]
Neri&Hu: Works in Permanent Evolution (2021)
#Curation #SpatialNarrative #ProjectManagement #ArchitecturalResearch #AdaptiveReuse#AcademicPartnership
A 15-year retrospective exhibition for the leading interdisciplinary practice Neri&Hu.
As the co-curator, I structured the firm’s vast body of work into six conceptual categories (e.g., Reflective Nostalgia, Inhabitable Strata), translating abstract architectural inquiries into a tangible spatial narrative. The exhibition served as a critical interface between professional practice and academic discourse, attracting over 2,000 visitors and fostering public engagement with the built environment.
[More..]
Chinese Overseas Finance and Investment
What Have We Learned? (2022)
# International Conference #insitutional work #GlobalSouth #Human Rights #Facilitation # Sustainability #Social Justice#SystemDesign #Geopolitics #Strategy
A three-day international conference convened by the Ford Foundation. Amidst rising US-China tensions, I co-designed and facilitated this strategic intervention to examine the impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on the Global South. The program moved beyond binary political rhetoric, creating a safe platform for stakeholders to discuss sustainability, equity, and the agency of indigenous communities. This project represents my shift to designing systems of collaboration, demonstrating that creating the conditions for dialogue is a critical act of design.
[More..]
Book of Caring: To be heard is to be loved (2025)
#SocialPractice #Facilitation #ZineMaking #CoCreation #CollectiveWisdom#ParticipatoryArt #ToolForDialogue
[More..]
Open Up (2026)
#SocialPractice #design #sitespecific #designthinking #urbanization
Created in collaboration with Shanghai-based design and art duo Orifico, this exhibition draws a parallel between these disappearing openings and another familiar experience: struggling to breathe in Beijing’s allergy season. What do walls, windows, and the air we breathe reveal about the ways we inhabit a city?
Through site-specific installations tucked into the spaces of 010 Beijing Natural, the exhibition invites visitors to rediscover the city through unexpected details, playful interventions, and a touch of deadpan humor. On a summer night in Beijing, come explore the spaces between architecture and the body, regulation and improvisation, congestion and relief.
[More..]
Yearning for Geese on the Fragrant Islet
（ “芳洲思雁” ）
Artist: Wang Zhigang (王志刚).
Creation Date: Completed in October 1987
This public sculpture stood right in the middle of a busy intersection. It was there I witnessed how a public sculpture seemed almost designed to disturb the flow of traffic. Amidst the blaring horns and my parents' fury at the traffic, those cast iron geese were the only still, peaceful things. I even wished the traffic jams would last longer, just to be able to gaze at them.
I love that sense of distance. That state of semi-opacity, where I have to feel my way through the words, transforms the language from a mere utility into a mist-shrouded, living soundscape. It serves as a reminder that the most arresting literature often thrives in the untamed gaps of what we don’t immediately understand.
“Heart Shaped” Red Traffic Light
Hostile Architecture
Defensive Design
Light
Art Without Work & Work Without Art
https://brand-new-life.org/b-n-l/art-without-work-and-work-without-art/
This resonates deeply with my own belief that meaning resides in the mundane. By positioning care and recovery not as breaks from work, but as the work itself, she dismantles the economic exploitation inherent in the art world. In a system obsessed with constant output, Sagri reminds us that the "no work"—the maintenance and recovery of the self—might actually be the most radical production of all.
“PUBLIC Space” in Beijing
The architect likely designed these deep metal frames for visual depth, a high-end look, or perhaps shading—purely for that 'Monumental aesthetic.' But for the passersby, that depth is the perfect fit: the height is right, there's back support, there's shelter overhead, and clearly, it faces the sun.
It’s ironic. Sometimes, commercial design meant to attract customers ends up being more humane than public squares designed to 'showcase the city.' A private business ends up shouldering the function of a civic space.
When massive public spaces don't welcome people—like how you can't just sit anywhere in Tiananmen Square, or parks are too far or require tickets, or streets are too wide with no shade—people just seep like water into every available crack in the city.
It reminds me of the news about the elderly resting in IKEA, who were criticized for lacking public morality. In reality, the scarcity—or 'unfriendliness'—of public space in Beijing (and many Chinese cities) is deeply tied to the logic of politics and social governance.
Beijing’s scale is 'Monumental,' not 'Human Scale.' Monumentalism constantly tells you: 'You are small; the collective/state is grand.' Yet, I still see people stubbornly finding this kind of dwelling in the cracks.
Deepa Iyer's Social Change Ecosystem Map
Deepa Iyer’s book is truly a guide for reflection. It hit me that without defining core values first, any action I take is just blind.
What I love most is the fluidity. I don’t have to subscribe to one role forever. Trying to carry it all by myself only leads to burnout. The ecosystem is about interdependence—trusting that others are doing their part, so I can focus on mine. It’s not about doing everything; it’s about values-driven action.
DO by Sol Lewitt ( 1965 )
letter to artist Eva Hesse
Lately, I’ve been haunting Sol LeWitt’s 1965 letter to Eva Hesse. The image of that big, bold "DO" keeps flashing in my mind.
It sounds so simple—"just do"—but making work without overthinking the work is one of the hardest disciplines to master. To really "DO" requires a surrender. It requires a willingness to be "stupid," to be "bad," to lower the gates and let the standards drop just so something, anything, can get out.
LeWitt’s advice hits me hard every time I read it: "You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, epty. Then you will be able to DO... try to do some BAD work."
That is the crux of it. The hardest part. We are so desperate to make "good" work that we paralyze ourselves. I'm realizing that the ambition to make good work is exactly what stops me from making any work at all. Note to self: Practice being empty.
02
An LLM Mediated Manifesto by Jenna Fizel and Dave Vondle from IDEO
The energy there felt like a direct response to everything I’ve been writing about. The core message was clear: technology shouldn't just be a toolkit for the privileged few. It reminded me so much of Principle 2 in that LLM Mediated Manifesto—the part about ensuring that "everyone who chooses to use AI can use AI". It’s about bridging that digital divide so activists, no matter their geopolitical baggage, can actually claim some form of "AI sovereignty."
At RightsCon, you can't escape the heavy conversations around how tech is being weaponized for surveillance and to push people to the margins. That’s why Principle 6’s idea of a "symbiotic relationship" feels less like a corporate buzzword and more like a survival strategy. It calls for a world where AI handles the heavy-lifting of "complex decision-making" while we, as humans, stay anchored in what really matters: empathy and "creativity".
ALSO, I have a question on what creativity really means?
新年愿景
把身心交给崎岖的山路去复位。
绝不交出独立思考的权力（利），
并且快马加鞭地狼狈前行。
通过不停的创作去除冗余，
让表达更加的清澈、笃定！