Chen Tianqiutao is an artist and educator working in China and the United States. Chen earned a BFA in Photography from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and received an MFA in Photography and an MA in Art + Design Education from Rhode Island School of Design.

Chen’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), Center for Photography at Woodstock (Woodstock, NY), ClampArt (New York, NY), Photographic Center Northwest (Seattle, WA), Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (Providence, RI), Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA), Modern Art Oxford (Oxford, UK), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China), Minsheng Art Museums (Beijing, China), Sarajevo Photography Festival (Sarajevo, BiH), DongGang International Photo Festival (Yeongwol, South Korea), Taipei International Photo Festival (Taipei, Taiwan), and Copenhagen Photo Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark), among others. His work was selected for the 2022 Critical Mass Top 50 and the 2025 URBAN Photo Awards Winners Shortlist for the Projects & Portfolios Category. His photobook won the 2017 Lucie Photo Book Prize for the Independent Publishing Category.

Currently, Chen is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography in the Department of Art and Art History at Auburn University in Auburn, AL.