Longlati is pleased to announce that artist Lu Yu (b. 1997) has been selected as the artist-in-residence for 2025 to 2026.
Reflecting Longlati’s continued commitment to fostering site-specific research and emerging artistic practices, Lu Yu is the fourth artist to join the residency since its launch in 2019—carrying forward the institution’s aim to grow in dialogue with artists who pursue conceptual depth and experimental approaches.
Lu Yu will begin her residency on 20 August 2025 at Longlati’s artist studio located in the Wen’an Road space, located in Suzhou Creek, Shanghai. Over the course of a year, she will engage in a sustained artistic practice grounded in long-term, site-responsive inquiry. Situated within a setting marked by both geographic specificity and layered histories, the studio functions as a space for experimentation—supported by an integrated structure that links exhibition-curating with research. During the residency, Lu will concentrate on locally grounded research and production: immersing herself in Shanghai’s urban fabric and cultural landscape through ongoing fieldwork, critical inquiry, and artistic experimentation. Longlati will open the studio sporadically to the public and the broader art community, creating opportunities for dialogue around her evolving process, conceptual investigations, and working methods.
Longlati will provide full support throughout Lu Yu’s residency, including studio, technical assistance, access to research resources, and platforms for academic dialogue. Following the residency, Longlati will present her first institutional solo exhibition in autumn 2026, offering a systematic reflection and articulation of the ideas and works developed during her time in residence.
Lu Yu, Weaning, Wedding, Funeral, 2025, resin clay, acrylic, medicine instructions, ceremonial and ritual objects on wood, 180 × 400 × 6 cm. Courtesy of the artist
About the Artist
Yu Lu, born in Chengdu, Sichuan in 1997, currently works and resides in Shanghai. In 2019, she graduated from Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.
Lu Yu approaches her artistic practice through the lens of epidemiology, treating sociocultural conditions as chronic pathologies that unfold across time and space. She investigates how such conditions emerge, spread, and manifest across individual and collective bodies—probing their triggers, symptomatic behaviours, comorbidities, and the possibilities for diagnosis or repair. Through artistic approaches and mixed materials, Lu transfers obscure sociocultural issues into tangible, sensory forms, giving form to conditions that usually escape perception, stripping them of their invisibility.
