LuYang

LuYang (b.1984, Shanghai) is a Tokyo-based multi-media artist who creates fantastical and morbid visions of existentialism, mortality, sexuality (or a-sexuality), and neurological constructs of both real lifeforms and deities. Deeply immersed in the subcultures of anime, video games, and sci-fi, LuYang taps into the enormous influence of Japanese cultural imports on a particular generation in China (those born in the 1980s) as means for provocative imagination that never fails to fascinate, bewilder, and even enrage their audience. Some of their notable projects include DOKU - the Self (2022), Digital Alaya (2021), Kimo Kawa Cancer Baby (2014), Uterus Man (2013), and Wrathful King Kong Core (2011), often in collaboration with performers, designers, experimental composers, and controversial figures such as Mao Sugiyama.

LuYang earned their BA (2007) and MA (2010) in New Media Art from China Academy of Art. LuYang has been featured in important solo exhibitions at institutions such as Oi! Street Art Space, Hong Kong (2023); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2023); Nxt Museum, Amsterdam (2023); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2023); the 59th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022); Asia Society Museum, New York (2021); and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013). They have been included in group exhibitions at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2023); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2023); Fondazione Torino Musei, Italy (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2022); Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland (2022); Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2022); HOW Art Museum, Shanghai (2022); Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Russia (2021); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai (2020); Centre for Chinese COntemporary Art - Manchester, UK (2019); Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2018); Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, China (2018); San Francisco Art Institute, California (2018); Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia (2018); 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Turkey (2016); Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore (2015); Fridericianum Museum, Kassel, Germany (2015); and Tampa Museum of Art, Florida (2015), among several others. They have been an artist-in-residence at New York University, New York (2014); symbioticA, Perth (2013); Centre d’Arts Plastiques et Visuels, Lille, France (2012); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan (2011); and Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan (2011). In 2022, LuYang was selected as a judge for Prada’s Auction in the Year of the Tiger and as Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year. They also received the BMW Art Journey Prize (2019), Asian Cultural Council Grant (2013), and the Focus on Talents Award, Today Art Museum (2011).