lowercase focus: March 18, 2021

Welcome to lowercase focus, a bi-monthly program which seeks to highlight emerging artists and exhibitions over the world.

In my last focus article, I looked at a number of emerging and mid-career artists in my home of Australia which I am inspired and impressed by. This time, I’d like to continue with a regional focus, however shift over to China where a lot of wonderful artistic careers are also emerging. Here, artists often respond to the peculiar socio-political era in which the country exists, regularly doing so in a quirky, unique and new aesthetic specific to the region.

Lin Ke

Lin Ke is an artist and designer currently living in Beijing who has been on my radar since 2014 when he won the Pierre Huber Art Prize. His artworks examine and respond to behavioural science in the digital age, where his computer is often treated as his studio. He explores the mundane vicissitudes through capturing data, screenshots and other tech-related imagery, forming these into artworks in an array of presentations spanning installation, collage, video-works and computer painting.

Xinyi Cheng

 Xinyi Cheng is a Wuhan born, Amsterdam-based artist, most recognisable by her paintings of the body. Partly surreal, partly dream-like in their vibrancy, Cheng has carved out a unique aesthetic which is rich, sensual and beguiling. Her works have a realistic touch to them however, where her figures, whether standing in bathtubs or drinking from fountains, are posed in true form and adorned with unapologetic features such as long body hair.

Chen Zhou

 Chen Zhou is a Shanghai-based video artist and founder of the video art collective 3 Minute Group. Known for being a recluse, his studio is purportedly an ‘internet free’ zone, done so as to allow artists to focus on painting, script writing and the artmaking process more broadly. The result is artworks like his 2012 film, I’m not not Chen Zhou, a whimsical self-reflection on the role of the artist.

Liu Yefu

 Based in both New York and Shanghai, Liu Yefu is an exciting artist whose works cast a certain irreverence onto mass media. Creating purposefully clumsy yet highly stylized digital collages from low-budget infomercials, live streams, adult films and museum tours, Yefu’s artworks enable a humorous, dark and often refreshing take on the media and imagery we imbibe on a daily basis.

Miao Ying

 Based between Beijing and Shanghai, Miao Ying is an artist who takes China’s internet policy as her muse, making artworks which focus on censorship. I’ve been following Ying since 2015 when she created a digital-exhibition during the Venice Biennale titled Holding A Kitchen Knife To Cut The Internet Cable in which she adorned several blocked or censored internet pages with kitschy, funny or cynical Chinese poetry.


Emerson Radisich is a curator, writer and educator currently based in Melbourne, Australia.