CAO Yu is a pioneering multidisciplinary artist working across diverse media. Renowned for her incisive and bold artistic language, exceptional creativity, and profound international influence, CAO has been recognized as one of the most influential emerging artists in Asia today, the leading figure of China’s new generation female artists. She has received numerous domestic and international art awards, with her works exhibited globally at major museums and institutions.
CAO Yu’s works are often known for their strong visual impact and profound thematic thinking. Her artistic exploration involves complex issues such as gender identity, survival status, major historical events, humanity, interpersonal relationships, etc. In recent years, her works have shown attention and reflection on a wider range of social and cultural issues, while critically contemplating the reality of the world, it also reflects an individual’s exploration and reconstruction of her own identity. By using her own physical self, CAO Yu pushes boundaries and articulates a bold new voice for her own and succeeding generations. Her works challenges propriety and other social conventions, question the value and identity of current Chinese society using the way that is not only inherent but also performative, also shedding new light on relevant and timely women’s issues, making her works about gender and identity almost a phenomenon initiated by herself. In the process, the work of this free spirit and focused artist, opens up new possibilities.
Her artistic practice has made significant contributions to the status and development of contemporary art, especially for female artists in the Chinese art community. This is of great significance for understanding contemporary China and the development of contemporary art in the context of globalization.
Her oeuvre has been featured in numerous major solo exhibitions across China and Europe, with institutional presentations at leading art museums and institutions in Germany, the United States, Austria, Norway, Denmark, South Korea, and Australia sparking critical discourse. On July 30, she will share professional insights gleaned from nearly a decade of artistic research, examine how the artist, through explorations of identity and gender, has consistently pushed boundaries to develop a comprehensive practice spanning interdisciplinary and multimedia experimentation with fellow practitioners at National Art School.
Check out CAO Yu’s insta here
