The Chinese multimedia artist’s largest UK solo exhibition traces two decades of video, photography and virtual worlds, from Whose Utopia to her new installation The Birth.
The Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei opens her largest UK solo exhibition to date at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank on Tuesday 20 April 2027. It is the second showing of a European survey first presented at Kunstmuseum Basel in June 2026.
Born in Guangzhou in 1978, Cao works across video, photography and digital media. She draws on cinema, science fiction, gaming, history and popular culture, often with a surreal turn.
Whose Utopia, from 2006, filmed the dreams of factory workers inside the plant where they worked. RMB City, built from 2007 to 2011, was a city she made in the online world of Second Life.
Five chapters follow her practice from the early 2000s to today. Asia One, from 2018, is shown with her newest multi-channel installation, The Birth, from 2026. Across them she records urban change and builds virtual worlds that question what is real.
The Huo Family Foundation supports the exhibition, which runs until Sunday 25 July 2027. Standard entry is £19, and Southbank Centre Members go free.