Phil Zheng Cai (American, b. Shanghai) is a curator and writer based in New York. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Social Science, and received his MA from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He has held posts at Mary Boone Gallery, Phillips Auctioneers, and is currently a partner at Eli Klein Gallery.
Cai’s curatorial projects have received critical attention in Artnet News, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, WhiteHot Magazine, Musée Magazine, Cultbytes, and Impulse Magazine, among others. His exhibition (In)directions: Queerness in Chinese Contemporary Photography was reviewed by Hyperallergic, Musée Magazine, and AMP, and its catalog is held by major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ICP, Dallas Museum of Art, Leslie-Lohman Museum Library, and over thirty university libraries worldwide. He has participated in panels and lectures at the Asia Society Museum, SCAD Museum of Art, Columbia University, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and regularly serves as a visiting critic at programs such as NARS, Residency Unlimited, Parsons, SVA, and Columbia.
Cai’s writings are regularly published. His exhibition review “The Estate of Joshua Caleb Weibley at CHART Gallery asks if we still want to play” was recently published in WhiteHot Magazine. His interview with Bojan Stojcic “A Mirrored Interview” was published in IMPULSE Magazine. His exhibition reviews “A Proposal to Live with What Had Been There - Cynthia Gutiérrez at Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil”; “Enacting Disassociation - Jean-Luc Moulène Solo Exhibition at Miguel Abreu Gallery”; “Life as an Invitation - Yoan Capote Solo Exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery” and critical essay “Take a Step: Phil Zheng Cai on the Opening of M+ Museum” were featured in the Widewalls Magazine.
With a continuing interest in philosophy, Cai translated The Story of Philosophy by James Garvey (Shanghai Yuandong Press, 2020). His essay “Everything can become an NFT, is it true?” was published in The New York Times T Magazine (China edition), and “Nomad Photography” appeared in the Parsons MFA Photo Thesis Catalog (2024).
Cai’s curatorial initiative Open Kitchen focuses on systematic critique, providing recontextualized commentaries following the traditions of institutional critique, highlighting the non-severability of framework and context. Its interview series “Open Kitchen Negatives” examines the concepts, origins, and ramifications of “missing parallels.”
Phil Zheng Cai currently works and lives in New York.