Shanghai-based Chinese multimedia artist LuYang has become a force in the contemporary art world, producing immersive video works that merge digital avatars, video game and anime aesthetics with Buddhist theology and psychological enquiry.
Read MoreBorn in Shanghai in 1984, LuYang studied at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where they were taught by pioneering Chinese video artist Zhang Peili. LuYang gained both their BA (2007) and MA (2010) in New Media Art at the academy.
LuYang's practice is rooted in elements of Japanese pop culture that became highly influential for their generation in China. Looking towards video games, anime, and science fiction, LuYang use multimedia art as a conduit for exploring ideas of sexuality, asexuality, religion, mental illness, and death, amongst other psychological themes. Their work is entrenched in the Japanese otaku subculture, a term describing people who have an obsession with anime, manga, or video games.
LuYang's artworks often incorporate non-binary post-human avatars. One example is Doku, a professed digital reincarnation of LuYang, who features in many of the artist's films including DOKU – Digital Descending (2020–ongoing), which was presented at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The avatar's name refers to the phrase 'Dokusho Dokushi', meaning 'We are born alone, and we die alone'.
LuYang's films are produced collaboratively, with scientists, animators, and other technicians lending their skills to translate the artist's own facial expressions upon their androgynous protagonists using motion capture technology.
Alongside harvesting inspiration from new technologies, science, and pop culture, LuYang cites the influence of traditional Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism. For example, they have related the use of their own likeness for their characters to the Buddhist practices of visualisation, with the purpose of becoming less attached to the self.
The narratives in LuYang's animations also draw heavily from Buddhist philosophies, such as the quest for enlightenment and reincarnation. Much of their exploration of the digital sphere is rooted in Buddhist concepts. As the artist told Ocula Magazine, 'In Buddhism, there's the idea that nothing is real, whether it's in the digital or physical world. You can't touch it; it's like a bubble or a dream. Based on this concept, I don't think digital worlds are fake. They're real.'
LuYang has received numerous awards and accolades, including Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year (2022); BMW Art Journey Prize (2019); Asian Cultural Council Grant (2013); Today Art Museum's Focus on Talents (2011). In 2022, LuYang was selected as a judge for Prada's Action in the Year of the Tiger, an awareness campaign and art project award.
LuYang has held several international artist residencies, including at New York University (2014); SymbioticA, Perth (2013); 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo (2013); Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco (2012); Centre d'Arts plastiques et visuels, Lille (2012); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2011); and Tokyo Wonder Site (2011).
LuYang has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include LuYang NetiNeti, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2022); Digital Descending, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark (2022); Dokusho Dokushi Hello World, Asia Society Museum, New York (2021); Delusional Mandala, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio (2017); Delusional Crime and Punishment, Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai (2016); and The Anatomy of Rage (Wrathful King Kong Core), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013).
Group exhibitions include The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale (2022); Ultra Unreal, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2022); In Search of the Present, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2022); Cloud Walkers, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); and Neurons, simulated intelligence, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020).
LuYang's auction debut took place in the 2021 SBI Art Auction in Japan, with their NFT, 1. DOKU Hello World / 2. DOKU Human (2021), selling for close to six million JPY, equivalent to approximately 50,000 USD.
LuYang's website can be found here, and their Instagram can be found here.
Articles on LuYang have been published on various platforms, including artnet, ArtReview, and The New York Times.
Rachel Kubrick | Ocula | 2022
