tl;dr

  • Chinese artist Lu Yang has two solo exhibitions open in New York, at Museum of the Moving Image and Amant.
  • The Great Adventure of the Material world at Museum of the Moving Image can be experienced either as a single-channel film or through interactive gameplay.
  • DOKU! DOKU! DOKU!: samsara.exe at Amant brings together three major feature-length films by the author from the DOKU cycle.

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Chinese artist Lu Yang has two solo exhibitions open in New York, at Museum of the Moving Image and Amant. Both of these exhibitions showcase the artist's digital creations, which combine the themes of conflict, transformation and rebirth in a cathartic experience mirroring the Buddhist belief in cyclical change, i.e. saṃsāra. Lu Yang's fascination with Buddhist cosmology, video games, anime, and science fiction finds its creative release in the ever-shifting world of moving images.

Is the ephemerality of the material realm a cause for trepidation, or should it instead encourage one to relinquish desire and attachment to self? Lu Yang considers the ramifications of this question in The Great Adventure of the Material World (2019-2020), a conceptually ambitious and visually enthralling project that is being presented for the first time in the United States at the Museum of the Moving Image. This work follows the journey of the androgynous protagonist, the Material World Knight, through the six planes of bardo (the transitional state between life and death) in search of the Vajra. This quest takes them through a world populated by themes and characters drawn from previous works by Lu Yang, which reflect their ongoing fascination with multiplicity, perceptual change and embodiment. The work can be experienced either as a single-channel film or through interactive gameplay.

The exhibition DOKU! DOKU! DOKU!: samsara.exe, is on view at Amant and represents the first institutional solo exhibition by the artist to be held in New York. The work is centered around the character DOKU, a virtual avatar modeled around the artist's own body. The name itself recalls the Japanese Buddhist maxim dokusho dokushi (We are born alone, and we die alone), with this digital avatar serving as a surrogate and philosophical vessel for navigating a cosmos where spirituality, neuroscience and meditation coalesce. The show brings together three major feature-length films by the author from the DOKU cycle: DOKU the Self (2022), DOKU the Flow (2024) and DOKU the Creator (2025). Each of these works follows the virtual protagonist through different stages of the fragmentation and dissolution of the self, meditating on the purpose of authorship in virtual reality.

Computer graphic rendered image of Buddhist statues come to life, grouped around an altar with severed heads, with a text caption in green that reads "So much food is offered in front of the spirit tablet of this deceased called Lu Yang."
Lu Yang, The Great Adventure of the Material World, 2019-2020. Video still. Single-channel film/interactive game. Image courtesy of the artist.

Museum of the Moving Image describes itself as the only museum in the United States dedicated to the moving image, the central art form of our times. Encompassing film, video, games and other forms of digital media, the moving image shapes how we perceive and interact with reality. Permanent and temporary exhibitions at the Museum explore the art, history, technique and science that undergird the phenomenon of moving images. A variety of public programs help to inform general audiences on the seminal role that the moving image medium holds in contemporary society and culture.

Amant is a non-profit arts organization in Brooklyn and Siena, Italy. As a non-collecting institution, Amant focuses on and fosters research, experimentation and dialogue, through exhibitions, live programs, publications and artist residencies. Its mission is to advance the presentation of contemporary art, while highlighting the innovative ideas and trends that are shaping the contemporary art world. Dedicated to supporting established and mid-career international and local artists, Amant serves as a meeting ground for laborers from diverse creative fields.

Lu Yang is an interdisciplinary artist based between Shanghai and Tokyo. Their practice integrates Buddhist cosmology, Chinese mythology, advanced digital technology, gaming aesthetics, anime and technologies of simulation to examine the boundaries and illusoriness of identity and consciousness. Drawing their inspiration from the Madhyamaka branch of Buddhism, which states that all phenomena are void of inherent essence, Lu Yang constructs visual environments that utilize a highly sensorial language that teases viewers to reassess the relationship between perception and reality in the digital age.

Lu Yang's recent solo exhibitions have been held at Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris), MUDEC (Milan), Kunsthalle Basel, Palais Populaire (Berlin), ARoS Aarhus Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. They participated in the Venice Biennale in 2015 and 2022 and contributed to other major biennales and triennials around the world. More information about the artist can be found on their website and Instagram.

The exhibition The Great Adventure of the Material World at Museum of the Moving Image is open from September 26, 2025 to March 22, 2026. DOKU! DOKU! DOKU!: samsara.exe is on view at Amant from September 18, 2025 to February 15, 2026.

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