The Body of Void
Wu Linghao
2025.09.06-2025.10.19

The Body of Void installation view, 2025
The Body of Void
Wu Linghao
2025.09.06-2025.10.19
WU SPACE | PRISM
As a Generation Z artist, Wu profoundly experiences the radical shift from globalization to the post-pandemic era. This cinematic transformation and pervasive uncertainty make it difficult for individuals to distinguish between the real and the perceived, leading him to render various states of chaos derived from these lived sensations onto the canvas. Likewise, anthropomorphic organisms recurring in his works retain human-like traits, while figures composed of virtual materials navigate contradictions between self and societal forms within the unique spatial systems constructed by the artist. Set against brutalism-inspired backdrops, these elements are juxtaposed to form the distinct aesthetic Wu Linghao seeks to express.

Wu Linghao excels in constructing futurist lines and employing mechanical compositions to engage the viewer. This deliberate approach to composition serves as a method to provoke reflection, while simultaneously creating a self-mocking humour that contradicts sensory expectations. Conceptually, this structured sensibility also signals Wu's intent to pursue interdisciplinary creation, ultimately contributing to his unique artistic language. The figures that appear in these works are not without reference; inspired by works such as A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, Wu reinterprets the distorted gestures characteristic of Francis Bacon's iconic paintings, re-creating them within his own visual narratives.
Influenced by film and literature, Wu Linghao approaches painting as a form of directorial practice. The distinctive worlds within his pictures represent systems the artist aims to establish—a kind of mirror-like mechanism for reflection, preserved through the act of viewing.
About the artist
Wu Linghao (b.1997, Fuzhou, China) is a China born artist living and working in Shanghai. He holds a BFA from the Second Studio of the Oil Painting Department at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (2020). Selected solo exhibitions include: ‘Crimes of the Future’, BLANKgallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2024; ‘Hinterland @ Through Stomach Surgery Table Soaked Blue’, SIMULACRA, Beijing, China, 2023; ‘Emotion Algorithm’, Hua Art Space, Beijing, China, 2022; ‘If they give you the paper with lines on, don't write on the lines’, 55gallery, Shanghai, China, 2021. Selected group exhibitions include: ‘HumanScapes’, BLANKgallery, Shanghai, China, 2024; ‘Era of Encore’, Beijing Dangdai Art Fair and Beijing Times Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2024; ‘Screen Depth’, Guangdong Contemporary Art Center, Guangdong, China, 2024; ‘Wukang Drying Field’, E.SCAPE, Shanghai, China, 2024; ‘Primordial Dream’, BLANKgallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2023; ‘Liquid Metal’, Part group, Shanghai, China, 2023; ‘A new interface’, PAC Art Center, Tianjin, China, 2022; ‘The Pervert's Guide to Painting’, SIMULACRA, Beijing, China, 2022; ‘Reality is not what you see’, Time is Sun's Art, Fuzhou, China, 2022; ‘Five Years Old Raise Your Head’, Painting Art Badass Store, Beijing, China, 2021.
WU SPACE | PRISM
An independent exhibition initiative launched by WU SPACE. Through the prism, we attend to diverse voices from young artists and creators. In a direct yet un‑reduced manner, we seek new forms of expression at the intersection of identity and heterogeneity, opening up further refractive possibilities for the linguistic spectrum of young artists and creators.
All images are installation views of The Body of Void at WU SPACE, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and WU SPACE. All rights reserved.