Lu Yang’s 3D animations and installations explore fundamental questions about the relationships between the body and consciousness, spirituality and science, technology and the limits of being human. Yang introduces his own body into many of his works, subjecting this proxy to myriad experiments that perpetually stage the multiplication, disintegration, or dissection of the body. The artist’s recent works revolve around the genderless Avatar DOKU. Named after the phrase “Dokusho Dokushi,” meaning “We are born alone, and we die alone,” DOKU is a digital shell, a virtual human. Yang describes DOKU, whose digital assets he’s been building for nearly five years, as a reincarnation of himself in a parallel universe—an extension of his soul into the digital realm.
Lu Yang (b. 1984, Shanghai) lives and works between Shanghai and Tokyo. Forthcoming presentations include a screening of his work on The High Line, New York, in collaboration with the Chanel Culture Fund, and a large scale survey exhibition at Amant, New York. In 2022, Lu Yang was named Artist of the Year by Deutsche Bank. His work was featured in WORLDBUILDING, an exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Julia Stoschek Foundation in Düsseldorf, which later traveled to the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
Lu Yang has held solo exhibitions at major international institutions including Kunsthalle Basel; Palais Populaire, Berlin; ARoS Museum, Aarhus; M Woods, Beijing; MOCA Cleveland; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Kunstpalais Erlangen. His work has also been presented in significant group exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Times Square Arts, New York; CCA Tel Aviv; ICA, London; Muzeum Sztuki, Poland; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; and Fridericianum, Kassel, among others.
Lu Yang is part of a number of public collections including ARoS, Aarhus; Asia Art Archives, New York; Deutsche Bank Collection, Frankfurt; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Kunstpalais Erlangen; M+ Collection, Hong Kong; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; Taguchi Art Collection, Japan; UBS Art Collection; Ullens Foundation, Switzerland; among others.
