Exhibtion:
Becomings
Yang Lu Solo Exhibtion
Curatorial Statement
Yang Lu’s work is an invitation into a profound thought exercise. It’s an exploration of perception, empathy, and the limits of human understanding. His research-driven yet deeply intuitive process pushes against the boundaries of art-making, philosophy, and technology, urging us to think beyond ourselves. Each piece operates as both object and inquiry: a visible embodiment of thought that challenges anthropocentric ways of seeing and knowing.
Through digital fabrication like CNC machining, laser cutting, and 3D printing, Lu merges precision with ambiguity. His forms are both mechanical and meditative, evoking clarity and distortion, reflection and absorption. The use of mirrored metal surfaces amplifies this duality: they invite us to see ourselves within the work, only to reveal the instability of our gaze. In these reflective fields, Jung’s theory of projection meets the cosmic pull of black holes, psychological and astronomical mirrors through which we glimpse our own limitations.
Lu’s practice imagines perspectives that resist human-centered logic. His references to the cosmos, the “alien”, and the relationship between consciousness and matter invite viewers to consider the world from radically non-human vantage points. In doing so, his work questions the binaries—self and other, human and non-human, known and unknown—that shape our ways of understanding reality. Rather than offering comfort or resolution, Lu’s art asks us to dwell in uncertainty, to shed being and embrace becoming.
This exhibition exists as a capsule of Lu’s process: an ongoing meditation on perception, empathy, and transformation. It invites us not to master the unknown, but to coexist with it. It forces us to look outward and inward at once, and recognize that understanding, like the mirrored surfaces of Lu’s works, is always in flux.
Exhibition Guide
About the Artist
Yang Lu is a multidisciplinary artist from China, finishing his last BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago. Encountering his sheets of acrylic screens beside glimmering metal fragments and half-finished forms is like discovering something unearthed from a future civilization. Trained as a painter, Lu has gradually turned his practice into a laboratory where philosophy meets fabrication—a place where CNC cutters and 3D printers translate abstract concepts into tangible, speculative objects. His works, hovering between painting, sculpture, and installation, challenge the viewer’s gaze as much as the human-centered logic that shapes it. As Lu puts it: “I want to provoke reflection on anthropocentrism and reconsider the status of those things defined as 'other' or 'for human use.' My goal is to highlight their own agency and the dangers of single-perspective narratives. In doing so, I hope to create an environment that is more respectful, inclusive, and open.” In his world, mirrors become portals, reflections become alien specimens, and the distance between thought and material all but disappears.
Public Engagement
Zine Launch Open Mike
Fundraiser
This event hosted the launch of the zine, Silience of Chicago by Annika Rae Keckhaver and Jeewon Han and an open mic connecting to the themes of the exhibition. All proceeds from attending the event and zine purchases were donated to aidthe HANA Center, an organization that supports Asian American and Asian Immigrant communities