Post-internet art: 5 Chinese artists taking aim at country’s digital world

Virtual identities, data security, internet love and government censorship all come under the scrutiny of China’s popular post-internet artists

Artist Miao Ying created a spoof website mocking the Chinese government’s 2015 ‘Internet Plus’ strategy for an exhibition in New York

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Part of Cyber Altar (2019) by Chinese post-internet artist Lu Yang at Art Basel Hong Kong 2019.

Published: 6:00pm, 8 May 2020Updated: 6:00pm, 8 May 2020

China has more internet users than any other country in the world who have to constantly deal with issues including the proliferation of fake news, data security and government censorship. These challenges are being expressed in the country’s art world, through the rise of what is known as “post-internet” art.

Here are five post-internet artists who, having grown up in a tech-transformed China, are making waves on the Chinese and international contemporary art scenes for their use of digital mediums as well as their fresh, critical takes on all things online.

Lu Yang

Born 1984. Lives in Shanghai

Lu’s works – loud, in-your-face Technicolor explosions – are hard to miss and have captivated art audiences around the world. If you attended Art Basel Hong Kong last year, you would have seen her installation Cyber Altar (2019) at Societe Berlin’s neon-lit booth, which resembled a 1980s video game arcade.

Cyber Altar (2019) by Lu Yang at Art Basel Hong Kong 2019. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Lu infuses themes from science, pop culture, sexuality and religion with elements of gaming to create video-based work featuring different genderless avatars of herself inspired by anime and manga iconography – outlandish virtual spins on the classic self-portrait. Embracing a kitsch aesthetic, she addresses the ability to create, control and define a virtual identity for one’s self on the internet.