Yantong Li



Spring 2026
(March 1 - May 31) Yantong Li (b. 1998, Dali, China), a researcher, curator, and artist of ethnic Bai lineage who is based in Toronto. Recently graduated from the Master of Visual Studies program (curatorial) at the University of Toronto, Li works at the intersection of transregional infrastructure, geopolitics, and cosmologies in the Southeast Asian massif.

He currently engages with shaoshu minzu cosmologies, myths, and languages from the Chinese borderlands and their emergent diasporic formations, which will be his primary focus during his residency with SITE Toronto. Formed in conversation with contemporary shaoshu minzu artists working in the diaspora, the culminating research will manifest into a preliminary visual and textual record in the form of a video essay and publication.  

Li’s work has been exhibited at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto (2025); Goethe Institute (Beijing, 2025); Jackman Humanities Institute (Toronto, 2024); The New Gallery (Calgary, 2024); Trinity Square Video (Toronto, 2023); Durian-Durian: the First Trans-Southeast Asia Triennial, (Guangzhou, 2023); at the Curatorial Awards at Jimei x Arles International Photography Festival (Xiamen, 2022).


This residency was made possible with the generous support of:

401 Richmond Art Metropole Partners in Art XinResidence




SITE Events: The Sounds That Move Us
SITE InterviewsSITE Editions: Shades of an Island, Shadows of a Land

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