Shu Lea Cheang
Shu Lea Cheang (born in Taiwan, 1954) is an artist and networker working at the interface between video, net-based installation, software interaction and durational performance. For over four decades, her practice explores subjects that are in a state of constant flux, including racial relations, the ecological impact of humans, information dissemination, the ethics of biotechnology and sexual politics.
Her first landmark exhibition, Color Schemes, was held in 1990 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The Guggenheim web-based commission, Brandon, 1998-1999, is the first work of this medium commissioned by a major institution and is continually cited in new media art history as a seminal work of net art. Brandon is a probing investigation of human sexuality and identity through the life and death of Brandon Teena, a young transgender man, who was raped and murdered in Nebraska for being transgender. She has had foresight into alternative currencies and decentralised organisations with Garlic=Rich Air (2002–), investigated gamified societies with Bowling Alley (1995), probed biotechnologies in Locker Baby Project (2001–2012) and explored their mutable nature in Mycelium Network Society (2017–).
Cheang represented Taiwan at the 58th Venice Biennale, presenting 3x3x6, 2019, a panoptic installation dealing with architectural control, confinement technologies and data collection via ‘case studies’ of people imprisoned because of their gender, sexual or racial nonconformity.
In 2024, Project Native Informant presented Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994-2023, a solo exhibition of Cheang’s four major film works: FRESH KILL, 1994, I.K.U., 2000, FLUIDØ, 2017, and UKI, 2023. Each work dismisses disciplinary limitations, conventional separations of form and content, aesthetics and truth. Her genre bending gender hacking practices challenge existing operating mechanisms and society’s structural boundaries.
Cheang’s works have been exhibited internationally, including; MUSEION, Bolzano; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; NTT Inter Communication Center, Tokyo and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. She has been a member of the alternative media collective Paper Tiger Television since 1982 and produced public-access programs for the group addressing racism in the media.
She was recently awarded the 2024 LG Guggenheim Award in recognition of her prescient exploration of emerging technologies and their broader societal implications.
In 2025, Tate Modern will host the UK premiere of Hagay Dreaming. This acclaimed performance by Cheang and practicing shaman Dondon Hounwn combines dance and ritual with laser projections and motion-capture technology.

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994 - 2023
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994 - 2023
Project Native Informant, London

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: UKI
2023
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: UKI
2023
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Red Pill in HOPE Techno Humanities
MUSEION—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
UNBORN0X9 In Reproduction Otherwise, 2022
MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
3x3x6
Taiwanese Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
3x3x6
Taiwanese Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: UKI Virus Rising
2018
3-channel video installation
10 mins, 00 secs

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
UKI Virus Rising at Gwangju Biennale 2018
Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang, with Martin Howse, Taro, and Franz Xaver
Mycelium Network Society, 2018 in Taipei Biennial: PostNature: A Museum as an Ecosystem
Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FLUIDØ
2017
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FLUIDØ
2017
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Mediterranean Touch Screen in TOMORROWS, 2017
Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Garlic=Rich Air, 2002
Creative Time, New York

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Baby Play, 2001
NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: I.K.U.
2000
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 30 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: I.K.U.
2000
Single-channel video
1 hour, 30 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: I.K.U.
2000
Single-channel video
1 hour, 30 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
BRANDON
1998-1999
Interactive networked code

Shu Lea Cheang
BRANDON
1998-1999
Interactive networked code

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
BUY ONE GET ONE in ICC BIENNALE ’97
NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
BUY ONE GET ONE in ICC BIENNALE ’97
NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo

Shu Lea Cheang
BUY ONE GET ONE
1997
Networked installation

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FRESH KILL
1994
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FRESH KILL
1994
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FRESH KILL
1994
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: FRESH KILL
1994
Single-channel HD video
1 hour, 20 mins

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Bowling Alley, 1995
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Bowling Alley, 1995
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
THOSE FLUTTERING OBJECTS OF DESIRE in Whitney Biennial 1993
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: SEX BOWL
1994
Single-channel video
07 mins, 00 secs

Shu Lea Cheang
Still: SEX FISH
1993
Single-channel video
06 mins, 00 secs

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Color Schemes, 1990
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Installation View
Shu Lea Cheang
Making News/Making History: Live From Tiananmen Square, 1990
International Center For Photography, New York
Solo Exhibitions

Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994-2023
PNI, London

What the Heck: Shu Lea Cheang on Hacking Tactics, Virus Becoming, and Geek Farming
Guggenheim, New York

Sci-Fi New Queer Cinema: Shu Lea Cheang (1994—2023)
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Group Shows
Shu Lea Cheang
Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001)
80WSE Gallery, NYU, New York

Shu Lea Cheang, Dondon Hounwn
Hagay Dreaming
Tate Modern, London

Press
We Ate a Sheep. We Lost the Plot: Shu Lea Cheang Shu Lea Cheang, Lauren Cornell, and Tiffany Sia in conversation
Mousse Magazine

Art of The Interzone: Shu Lea Cheang
Mousse Magazine

Resistance, Fish By Fish: Shu Lea Cheang
Spike Magazine

Shu Lea Cheang: Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994-2023
ArtMonthly

Sex Out of This World: Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Erotic at Project Native Informant
Elephant
