Biografie

LU LUO

Born 1972, Guanghan, China
1992, Si Chuan College of Fine Arts, China
1997, Minerva Academy, the Netherlands

Known for her use of traditional Chinese costumes and vibrant textiles, Lu Luo encounters the canvas as a stage upon which stories come together, woven into a colourful tapestry through which narratives of identity and expression are felt in the intricacies of texture.

Born in Sichuan, China, Lu grew up in the midst of the hustle and bustle of an opera house, joining her parents and their theater group during their tours around the province. Inspired by the fervour of Chinese opera, Lu often applies elements of the visual and formal language of its gestures and costumes, physically intertwining and recontextualising the traditional garments into her art as the substance of drama to empower and rethink the notions of femininity, nationality, mediality, and belonging.

Lu has developed her works into a distinct style that expresses an attunement to the complexities of beauty and pain, darkness and light, as the composition of surfaces in flux. The notions of strength and vulnerability form a union in the tangibility of the rhythms of colour, form, and materiality within her image, as Lu approaches them with a playful yet dauntless tenderness. Moving away from the nostalgia of her earlier works, Lu has pushed the elements of memory and sentimentality further into divergent directions in her recent works. Her techniques have evolved from re-appropriating the original fabrics of traditional costumes into a more abstract approach to art, life, and the notions of form and representation, using gradients of colour and line to compose each piece into an affective environment that conceals and reveals the constant movement within – like a never-ending dance.

Lu received her initial education at the Sichuan College of Fine Arts in China before moving to the Netherlands in 1995, where he pursued further studies at the Minerva Academy in Groningen, before establishing her artistic career in the decades that followed. As of today, she spends her time between her studio in China and her residence in Switzerland.

2020
Martina Kaiser Gallery | Cologne | Germany | Art Couples

2016
Etienne Gallery | Oisterwijk | The Netherlands

2014
Absolute Art Gallery | Bruges | Belgium

2012
Galleria Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea | Pietrasanta | Italy

2011
Gallery Seasons | The Hague | The Netherlands

2009
Gallery Roger Katwijk | Amsterdam | The Netherlands

2008
Gallery Majke Hüsstege | Den Bosch | The Netherlands
Gallery Seasons | The Hague | The Netherlands

2007
Gallery Seasons | The Hague | The Netherlands
Groninger Museum | Groningen | The Netherlands

2006
Gallery Roger Katwijk | Amsterdam | The Netherlands

2005
Gallery Seasons | The Hague | The Netherlands
Museum Rijswijk | Rijswijk | The Netherlands

2003
Gallery Nanky de Vreeze | Amsterdam | The Netherlands
The Centre for Contemporary Art Dordrecht | Dordrecht | The Netherlands

1999
Gallery De Lange | Emmen | The Netherlands | Artist Resident

1998
Gallery Anderwereld Katuin | Groningen | The Netherlands 1997 Gallery Waalkens | Finsterwolde | The Netherlands