Since graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2016, Cao Yu has set out to make work that is brazen, subversive, and unflinching, becoming one of China’s most influential young artists in the process
In front of a faded red brick wall, a woman in a black blazer and pants sits on a concrete sink, chest partly exposed, legs spread wide. From between them a broken faucet erupts, ejecting a violent stream of water like a flash of blinding light. The posture blurs the lines between masculine and feminine, and the subject’s intense gaze commands attention, daring viewers to confront her and the explicitly subversive intent behind the image.
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The She-Warrior of Art is a story from our issue, “Youthful Nostalgia.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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