Keyu YAN (he/他) is an art historian and writer. He specializes in the histories of Chinese art and visual culture, as well as global contemporary art. Additionally, his research explores the representations of gender and sexuality in Asian American art. Yan’s current book project examines how the concept of art was radically expanded in China during the 1980s and 1990s through the lens of installation art. This work has been supported by grants and awards from the Bei Shan Tang Foundation, the Association for Chinese Art History, and The Ohio State University.

His peer-reviewed articles and reviews have appeared in East Asian Publishing and Society, Burlington Contemporary, World Art, ASAP/J, and InVisible Culture. He has delivered lectures and talks at various institutions, including the College Art Association, the Association for Asian Studies, the Historical Society for Twentieth Century China, Macalester College, Kenyon College, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Yan has held curatorial and research positions at Red Gate Gallery (Beijing), Flaten Art Museum (Northfield, Minnesota), and The Ohio State University. In 2023, he served as the Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Research Associate for the Frank Museum of Art, conducting curatorial research and transcription on ink paintings by Chinese American artist C. Y. Woo. In 2022, he participated in the Andrew W. Mellon Chinese Object Workshops, respectively held at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art. Over the past years, he has collaborated with and conducted interviews with contemporary Chinese artists including Gu Wenda, Xu Bing, Shi Hui, and Liang Shaoji.

Yan earned his PhD and MA in History of Art from The Ohio State University, and his BA in Art History with Distinction and Magna Cum Laude from St. Olaf College. Currently, he is a professor in the Art History program at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he teaches both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on the histories of East Asian art, contemporary art, and film studies.