Lu Yang
With a fascination of the human body, neurology and control, Lu Yang's works provide a bridge between scientific technology and aesthetics drawn from the hypermediated nature of the contemporary East Asian culture industry. Lu Yang professes to 'live on the internet' and Lu's works appear as a poetic madness of internet-era politics, religion, technology and consumerism.
Lu Yang often works with artists, designers, illustrators and composers to create immersive installations that move into provocative territories, with a visual language that draws on music videos, Japanese anime, manga and video games. The works are satirical and visualize a subversive approach to biology, and cyborg bodies - works that, despite their apparent absurdity and morbid expressions, ask basic questions about (trans)human living.
While sometimes using both the pronouns he and she, the artist doesn’t identify with either gender and prefers to be referred to by name. Lu Yangs concept of gender is fluid and ambiguous in ways that virtual spaces allow for and encourage. Biology and (a)sexuality are key themes in Lu Yang’s work, which centers around basic reflections about being present in a body in a physical and/or non-physical world.
Yang's works reflects the artist's fascination with control. The body - human and animal - is conceived of as an assembly of muscular and nervous mechanisms, functioning or malfunctioning with ambivalence to the philosophical determinations of mind or spirit. Most of Yang's digital productions involve manipulated rigged 3D models - cadavers of another kind -while recent works have employed other forms of choreographic control such as live motion capture performance.
The frenetic intensity of Lu Yang's works create a spectacle at once stimulating and exhausting. From anime to art world, idols to idolatry, Yang mobilizes a dizzying array of pop-cultural effects that say less about neuroscience or religion per se than the structures of beliefs, communion and consumption by which our market-driven culture is compelled.
Lu Yang was born in 1984 and raised in Shanghai, China. Lu Yang is a graduate of The New Media Art department at China Academy of Art and has been represented at numerous international triennials/biennials, representing China at the Venice Biennial in 2015 with the work Digital Gods. Lu Yang’s works have been exhibited at major international exhibitions such as UCCA Beijing, Center Pompidou, ICA London, Musée d’art Contemporain Lyon and Momentum Berlin.
Selected Exhibitions & Projects
Lu Yang at Kunsthalle Basel
Lu Yang at ASIA NOW
Lu Yang Digital Descending at ARoS
Lu Yang's Control Center
CV
Lu Yang
Born 1984, Shanghai, China
Solo exhibitions
2023
LuYang Vibratory Field , Kunsthalle Basel
2022
Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year 2022, PalaisPopulaire, Berlin
NetiNeti, Zabludowicz Collection, London
MAM Screen 015, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
False Awakening, Kunstpalais, Erlangen
2021
Digital Descende, ARoS, Aarhus
LuYang's Control Center, Gether Contemporary, Copenhagen
Digital Alaya, Jane Lombard gallery, New York
Asrava World, COMA gallery, Sydney
GIGANT DOKU, Garage Museum, Moscow
2019
Debut, BANK/MABSOCIETY, Shanghai Delusional Mandala, Fotografiska, Stockholm
The Game World of Material World Knight, CC Foundation & Art Center, Shanghai
Cyber Altar, Art Basel Hong Kong under the auspices of Société
2018
Electromagnetic Brainology – LuYang, Spiral, Tokyo
Âme Nue, Hamburg
2017
Lu Yang Asia Character Setting Show, Special Special, New York
Lu Yang: Encephalon Heaven, M WOODS, Beijing
Welcome to LuYang Hell, Société, Berlin
Delusional Mandala, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland
Delusional Mandala, Space Gallery, Portland
2016
Shanghainese in Yokohama, Zou no Hana Terrace, Yokohama
Lu Yang, Delusional Mandela, abc gallery night, Société, Berlin
LuYang Delusional Crime and Punishment, NYU Shanghai Art Gallery, Shanghai
Delusional Mandala Lu Yang, interstitial, Seattle
2015
Lu Yang Delusional Mandala, Beijing Commune, Beijing
ANTI-HUMANISME, OK Corral, Science Friction, Copenhagen
2014
Arcade, Wallplay, New York
Selected Videos, Ventana244 Art Gallery, New York
KIMOKAWA Cancer Baby, Ren Space, Shanghai
2013
UterusMan, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai
The Images Beyond Good and Evil, AMNUA, Nanjing
Screening Program, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo
2012
Holiday, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee
The Biggest Circle, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
Plymouth Rock 2, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
World Peace, Kunstverein München, Munich
Rock, Vilma Gold, London
2011
11th Winds of Artist in Residence Part 2 – LuYang, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
The Anatomy of Rage (Wrathful King Kong Core), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
2010
The Project of KRAFTTREMOR, Boers Li Gallery, Beijing
Hell, Art Labor, Shanghai
Torturous Vision, Input/Output, Hong Kong
2009
The Power of Reinforcement, Zendai MOMA, Shanghai
Group exhibitions
2022
THE MILK OF DREAMS, 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venezia
Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year 2022, Palais Polpulaire, Berlin
Beneath the Skin, Between the Machines, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai
Hacking Identity- Dancing Diversity, Möllerei, Luxembourg
Ultra Unreal, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney , Australia
Epoch Wars, Performing Lines, Australia
No False Idols, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
2021
Lu Yang's Control Center, Gether Contemporary
The Earth is Flat Again, Muzeum Sztuki, Poland
Rehearsing the future: Dance with Nonhuman, Alien Art Center, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
Rising festival Melbourne, Melbourne
We Do Not Dream Alone, Asia Society Triennial, New York
Borau Hall Screening, CineZeta, Madrid
Fake Me Hard, Rotterdam
Radical Gaming: Immersion Simulation Subversion, Haus der elektronischen Künste, Basel
Ultra Unreal 2021, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
MUNCH Triennale, MUNCH MUSEUM, Oslo
Multi-prismatic Mutual View, Macau Cultural Centre, Macau Museum of Art, Macau
5th Bian Metamorphosis, Organized by Elektra, Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal
IMAGE TO IMAGE, Person Projects’s video-art series, Berlin
Art for the Future International Biennial, Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Russia
2020
Art Is Still Here: A Hypothetical Show for a Closed Museum, M WOODS, Beijing
Neurones, Les Intelligences Simulées, Centre Pompidou, Paris
pixelsfest, Yeltsin Cultural Center, Yekaterinburg
FEEDBACK LOOPS, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
BIAN Biennale internationale d’art numérique, International Digital Art Biennale, Montreal
Live performance at ELEKTRA Festival, Montreal
Asia Society Triennial, New York
LICHTSICHT – PROJECTION-BIENNALE, Osnabrück, Münster and Bielefeld
Bangkok Art Biennale 2020, Bangkok
Made by Artists online exhibition, Content Lab, Videotage, Hong Kong
Bangkok Art Biennial 2020, Thailand
“Heavy Bored”, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland
Bit Street Hong Kong, New Art Fest 2020, Lisbon
Futurological Congress at Transart Festival, Bolzano
ACC Gwangju-Asia Artists Exhibition < UN·TACT >, Asia Culture Center, Korea
IMMATERIAL, RE-MATERIAL: A brief history of computing art, UCCA, Beijing
New Year Eve Screening, Tank, Shanghai
Player of Beings, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai
Manque de Recul, Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai
Learning What Can’t Be Taught, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Both Sides Now 6, Videotage Hong Kong, Videoclub UK
Global launch of Cloud Nothing Music Video “Am I Something”
2019
Micro Era. Media Arts From China, Kulturforum, Berlin
Stumbling Through the Uncanny Valley: Sculpture and Self in the Age of Computer Generated
Imagery, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Chinernet Ugly, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester
LOW FORM. Imaginaries and Visions in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, MAXXI (National Museum of XXI Arts), Video Gallery, Rome
Some Kind of Halfway Place, Higher Pictures Gallery, New York
TEC ART, Rotterdam
2018
Roskilde Festival, “Diesel Worm”, Roskilde
Vector Festival, InterAccess Gallery, Toronto
China bi-annual festival “China Time”, Art Space Âme Nue, Hamburg
“Lumen Quarterly” by World Organization of Video Culture Development, Ullens Center for
Contemporary Art, Beijing
FUTURE FLASH 200, from Frankenstein to Hyperbrain, GOGBOT Festival for Creative Technology, Enschede
Computer Grrrls, HMKV, Dortmund / La Gaité Lyrique, Paris
Nowness Anniversary Exhibition, Shanghai
True Self, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, Beijing
Digital Art Festival Taipei, Taipei City
AN IM AL Art Science Nature Society, Hong Kong City University, Hong Kong
TAxT Taoyuan Science and Technology Festival, Taoyuan City
Big Workout-Annual International Project III”, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing
Conversation on the Edge, School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Film, Video and
New Media, in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and the Video Data Bank, Chicago
From/To: the Frontier of Chinese Art Education-China Academy of Art at SFAI, San Francisco Art
Institute, San Francisco
6th Athens Biennale, “ANTI”, Athens
12th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai
2017
Zhongguo 2185, Sadie Coles, London
promises of monsters, Fuchsbau Festival 2017, Hannover
FOREVER FORNEVER, Rhode Island College, Bannister Gallery, Providence
Culture City of East Asia 2017 Kyoto: Asia Corridor Contemporary Art Exhibition, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto
After Party 1 : Collective Dance and Individual Gymnastics, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
one world expo 2.1 #like4like, K11, Hongkong
After Us, K11, Shanghai
2016
Hyperlinks 2, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Believe In the Power of Gesture, Projektraum LS43, Berlin
Post-sense-sensibility: Trepidation and Will, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing
ARE WE HUMAN?: The Design of the Species: 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul
Time Test: International Video Art Research Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
Beijing Media Art Biennale, Beijing
Smart Illumination, Zou no Hana Terrace, Yokohama
Why the Performance, MCAM, Shanghai
CYNETART Festival 2016, Theater Hall Hellerau, Dresden
asia young 36, JEONBUK MUSEUM OF ART, JeonJu
Green celadon, The Artist House, Tel Aviv
Glas Animation Festival, Berkeley, San Francisco
Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition 2016, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonbuk
Liverpool Biennial 2016-Circuit Breaker Screening Program, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
Queensland Film Festival 2016, Queensland
Time Test: International Video Art Research Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing
The 3rd Edition of the International Digital Art Biennial, Montreal
Mapping the Body, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innisbruke
ARE WE HUMAN?: The Design of the Species: 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Innsbruck
The Shadow Never Lies, 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
We: A Community of Chinese Contemporary Artists, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai
WeChat: A Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese Art, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, CT; Asia Society Texas Center, Texas
Temporal Turn: Art and Speculation in Contemporary Asia, Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas
2015
Glas Animation Festival, Los Angeles
Imaginary Circle, Asian-Plastic Myths, Asian Cultural Center, Kwangju
Weaving the Asian Democracy, Asian Cultural Center, Kwangju
Moscow Biennale 2016, Moscow
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku
Psycho/Somatic: Visions of the Body in Contemporary East Asian Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
Breaking Joints, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Bad Asians 3.0, Dirty Looks NYC, New York
Absolute Collection Guideline, SiFang Art Museum, Nanjing
The 56th La Biennale di Venezia-China Pavilion, Venice
Renzez-vous, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Essential Experiments: Introduce Chinese Video Arts, British Film Institute, London
New Directions In Chinese Animation, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Fridericianum-Inhuman, Museum Fidericianum, Kassel
Transcending Tibet-Mapping Contemporary Tibetan Art in the Global Context, New York
2014
OCAT-Pierre Huber Prize Shortlist Exhibition, OCAT Shanghai, Shanghai
Performance and Imaginations: Photography from China 1911-2014, Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger
The 5th FukuokaAsian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka
The IV International Biennale for Young Art, the Museum of Moscow, Moscow
PANDAMONIUM: Media Art from Shanghai, Momentum, CAC/Chronus Art Center, Berlin
My Generation: Young Chinese Artists, Tampa Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, St.
Petersburg, Florida
PANDAMONIUM Micro-Exhibition #2: AI Weiwei + Lu Yang, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin
LA Asian Pacific Film Fest, Los Angeles
Animamix Biennale 2013-2014 Rediscovery, Museum of contemporary art Shanghai, Shanghai
Art Robotique”, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris
Unpainted Media Art Fair – LAB3.0, Munich
2013
Neo Folk, Ikkan Art Gallery, Singapore
7th Move on Asia, Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul
No Name, Ren Space, Shanghai
Queer project 2013, Nha San Collective, Hanoi
Degeneration, OCAT, Shanghai
Art World – Second Hand, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
GLOBAL PHOTO COLLABORATIONS, Diesel Art Gallery, Tokyo
West bund 2013 – A Biennial of Architecture and Contemporary Art, Shanghai
ASVOFF – A Shaded Viewon Fashion Film, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Cutlog Paris, Paris
Rendez-vous 2013, Musée d’art contemporain of Lyon, Lyon
OFF COURSE, FUORI ROTTA, FondazioneQueriniStampalia, Venice
THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS:Exploring Independent Animation, OCT, Shanghai
Some like it ho, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai
Memo, White Space, Beijing
Truth, Beauty, freedom and money, K11, Shanghai
Tampere Film Festival, Tampere
Pépinière, Lavitrine, Limousin Art Contemporain& Sculptures, Paris
ON/OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept & Practice, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
2012
ESCAPE(s) – in/from china #3, Centre d’Artsplastiquesetvisuels de Lille, Lille
UNFINISHED COUNTRY, Asia Society, Houston
PERSPECTIVES 180 – UNFINISHED COUNTRY: NEW VIDEO FROM CHINA, Contemporary Arts
Museum Huston, Houston
Dressing the screen – the rise of fashion film, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China Reactivation – Shanghai Biennale 2012, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai
Project Daejeon 2012:Energy, DaejeonMuseum, Daejeon
The Shadow of Language, Royal College of Art, London
Unseen – Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou Fine Art Museum, Guangzhou
Hinterlands, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco
VIRTUAL VOICES – approaching social media and art in China, Charles H.Scott Gallery, Vancouver
Get It Louder, Beijing
Rapid Pulse, DFB Performance gallery, Chicago
Sub-Phenomena, the firstCAFAM-Futureexhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
The Untouchables, Saamlung Gallery, Hong Kong
Solar Plexus, V Art Center, Shanghai
Solar Plexus, Space Station, London
It takes four sorts: A cross-strait Four-Regions Artistic Exchange Project, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Macau, Hong Kong, Osage
FOCUS2012, KunsthalNikolaj, Copenhagen
Symptoms, Iberiart, Beijing
2011
2011 Video Art in China – MADATAC, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
Hypnosis, TIVAC, Taipei
HIGH 5 – FIVE YEARS OF ART LABOR 2006 – 2011, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai
CAFAM Biennale – Super Organism 2011, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
Moving Image in China:1988-2011, Mingsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
Little Movements: Possibilities of Self-construction in Art, OCAT, Shenzhen Hypnosis, Other Gallery, Beijing
Future Festival, Top Building, Shanghai
Focus on Talents Project, Today Art Museum, Beijing
+Follow, Shanghai MOCA, Shanghai
In a Perfect World…, Meulensteen Gallery, New York
Grafted in, 53 Art Museum, Guangzhou
2010
Reflection of Minds-MoCA Shanghai Envisage 3, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai
Young Media Artists: China, Japan and Korea’ in INDAF 2010, Tomorrow City, Songdo, Incheon 2ND IMPRESSIONSArt Labor Gallery Openning Show, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai
Use the Hand Do the Job, Excellent Graduation Work, Shift space, Shanghai
Exhibition of CAA, Gallery of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou
Seven young artist, Beijing Commune, Beijing
Jungle – A Close-Up Focus on Chinese Contemporary Art Trends Exhibition, Platform China,
Beijing Burning Youth, Hangzhou
GO Young Artist Group Show, OCAT Art Center, Shenzhen
2009
Bourgeoisified Proletariat —Small production, Songjiang, New City Thames Town, Shanghai
The Quantity Bears Identity-How Shanghainese people treat themselves in a public transport,
KultFluxArt Space, Vilnius
PRESENT exhibition, CANART, Shanghai
Yang Chang Xiao Dao, Am art space, Shanghai
Itchy Young Artist Group Show, Biz Art, Shanghai
2008
Small production–No.5, Shopping Gallery, Shanghai
Fractal Note–9/9], Metoo Space, Hangzhou, China 2008 [Spade], T-space, 798 Art Zone, Beijing
2007
Pierre Huber Creation Prize 2007, Biz Art, Shanghai
what’s the time? Beijing, Shanghai Hangzhou New Media Art Exhibition, Creek Art Gallery, Shanghai fruits of experimental contemporary art education in China, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai