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

Chen’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Winchester, MA), the 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), Minneapolis College of Art and Design (Minneapolis, MN), Modern Art Oxford (Oxford, UK), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, China), Minsheng Art Museums (Beijing, China), 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 made the Winners Shortlist for the Projects & Portfolios section of the 2025 URBAN Photo Awards. His photobook The Last Post won the 2017 Lucie Photo Book Prize for the Independent Publishing Category and was shortlisted for the 2019 Images Vevey Book Award.

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