Lawrence Lek is a London-based Malaysian Chinese artist, filmmaker, musician and game designer. Drawing on a background in architecture and electronic music, he builds and films entire worlds inside real-time video game engines, assembling them from fragments of the real. His work explores spiritual and existential themes through speculative fiction, tracing how identity, agency and emotion evolve in the age of intelligent machines.
For over a decade he has sustained a single continuous fiction: a Sinofuturist world where advanced technology has become mundane, filled with exhausted workers and hyper-capitalist fantasies. Its protagonists are alienated figures, searching for purpose in a world where they do not belong, inhabiting bodies they do not own. Shot in cold, luminous palettes, his films are first-person journeys through these spaces, often seen from the machine's own eye: a dreaming satellite, a surveillance system, a sentient self-driving car. His machines are in rehabilitation, not in triumph or apocalypse.
Each episode exists in several forms at once. Alongside the films he builds what he calls site-specific simulations: total environments in which sculpture, architecture and playable games surround the screen, so that the physical room and the virtual world carry equal weight. The games often take up the same story from another character's point of view, letting an audience enter the fiction rather than watch it.
His influential 2016 video essay Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD) reads the fears and fantasies the West projects onto artificial intelligence and onto a rising China as mirror images of one another. Rather than refute this image of China-as-machine, it amplifies it, embracing a new model of posthuman collective intelligence. His debut feature, AIDOL (2019), screened in the Bright Future programme at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where his shorts Theta (2022) and Empty Rider (2025) were both selected for the Tiger Short Competition. He took part in Berlinale Talents in 2024, and is now completing his second feature, NOX, based on his series of solo exhibitions of the same name.
As a musician, he composes his own scores and stages expanded-cinema performances of his works at venues including the Tanks at Tate Modern (2025). Named to TIME's 100 most influential people in AI and a recipient of the Frieze London Artist Award, he is represented by Sadie Coles HQ, and his work is held in collections including the Guggenheim, M+ Hong Kong, and the Singapore Art Museum.
1982 Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2004 BA Architecture, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England
2008 AA Diploma, Architectural Association, London, England
2012 Master of Architecture II, The Cooper Union, New York, NY
2022 PhD, Royal College of Art, London, England
Lives and works in London, England
Solo Exhibitions
2026
Guanyin II: The Caretaker, V&A East Storehouse, London, England
NOX: Confessions of a Machine, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2025
NOX Pavilion, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami FL, USA
Life Before Automation, Goldsmiths CCA, London, England
Nøtel, Fotografiska, Shanghai, China
NOX High-Rise, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA, USA
2023
NOX, LAS Art Foundation, Berlin, Germany
Black Cloud Highway, Sadie Coles HQ, Davies Street, London, England
2022
Nepenthe (Summer Palace Ruins), QUAD, Derby, England
Post-Sinofuturism, ZiWu The Bund, Shanghai, China
2021
TRI_SOLO: Tim Crowley, Nik Kosmas and Lawrence Lek, BANK/MABSOCIETY, Shanghai, China
2018
Ghostwriter, Cursor Gallery, Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Farsight Freeport, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, Switzerland
Nøtel, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Essen, Germany
AIDOL, Sadie Coles HQ, Kingly Street, London, England
2017
Nøtel, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
Nøtel, arebyte Gallery, London, England
2065, chi K11 art space, Hong Kong
Group Exhibitions
2026
Worldbuilding, CANYON, New York NY, USA
Spotlight 75th, Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibitions, Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead,England (touring)
Global Positioning System, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
AI and the Paradox of Agency, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden
Cosmos Falling, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
Expanded world. Between the physical and the virtual, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
2025
The 5th Industrial Art Biennial: The Vast Automation, Istria, Croatia
Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, China
Beneath The Surface, EXPOSED Torino Foto Festival, OGR Torino, Turin, Italy
Echoes of Place, Kortrijk, Belgium
An Open Ending: TFAM Screening Projects, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan, China
Amongst the Clouds, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
The Story of Public Art, MAPS Museum of Art in Public Spaces, Køge, Denmark
Synthetic Fever, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
What Is It Like?, arebyte, London, England
Screening Project II, START Museum, Shanghai, China
2024
Biennale de I’Image en Mouvement 24 (BIM’24): A Cosmic Movie Camera, Centre d’Art Contemporian, Genève, Switzerland
Connectivity Construction, Asia Culture Centre, Gwangju, South Korea
The 20th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns, White Bay Power Station, Sydney, Australia
Life After Life, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China
NEXT LEVEL Festival, Dortmund, Germany
Synthetic Imaginaries, Matadero Madrid, Spain
Ctrl + ↑ for Coyote Time, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Liminal Stages: Explorations on Perception, Existence and Techno-consciousness, Wind H Art Centre, Beijing, China
NUWORLDS, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Haymarket, Sydney
The Show Must Go On, The Soil Collection, Beijing, China
Connectivity Construction, Asia Culture Centre, Gwangju, South Korea
2023
Virtual worlds: From cycloramas to Metaverse, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
HOPE, MUSEION, Bolzano, Italy
Fotograf Festival – hypertension23, National Gallery Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Editing Art: The Wanderer in Virtual Space, CAFA Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China (online)
Theta’s World, X Museum Virtual, Beijing, China, online
Mattflix,Matt’s Gallery, London, England, online
Topologies of the Real: Techne, Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, Shenzhen, China
Game Society, MMCA National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
OPEN SYSTEMS 1_OPEN WORLDS, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, online
FOUNDATION: A Web3 Media Art Festival, Videotage, Hong Kong
2024
The Pieces I Am, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China
FUTURES PAST, arebyte Gallery, London, England
Pattern Recognition. Revisiting the Municipal Collection Erlangen, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany
In Our Veins Flow Ink and Fire, 5th Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India“
I Am Not A Robot”. On the Borders of The Singularity,Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary
Perfect Partner in the Near Future, Yuelai Art Museum, Chongqing, China
Meta.space: Visions of Space, Francisco Carolinum, Linz, Austria
Future – Into the Open, 27th Rohkunstbau, Altdöbern, Germany
Cloud Walkers, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Ultra Unreal, MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Worldbuilding: Gaming & Art, 15th Anniversary Exhibition of Julia Stoschek Collection, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist (touring)
Future Shock, 180 The Strand, London, England
Symbiosis - Digital Creativity and Ecological Civilization, 1st Beijing Art Biennale, Beijing, China
Digital Resonance, G.MAP Gwangju Media Art Platform, Gwangju, South Korea Testament, Goldsmiths CCA, London, England
2021
British Art Show 9, Hayward Gallery Touring, Various Locations, England and Scotland (touring)
Feeling the Stones, 1st Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Future Proof, Refresh.bzh, Paimpol Art Club, Brittany, France
Future Media Art Festival, C-LAB Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, Taiwan
In The Year of The Metal Ox, donaufestival, Krems, Austria
Chronicles of the Future Superheroes, Kunsthalle Bega, Romania
Iskra Delta, 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Radical Gaming - Immersion Simulation Subversion, HEK Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, Switzerland
Open?, Russian Pavilion at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy
AI: More than Human, World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, England; AI: More than Human, Fernán Gómez, Madrid, Spain (touring)
Extensions Vol III. Monstrous Machines, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark and Radar Contemporary, online
Pieces of Me, Transfer Gallery, online
Am I a Human to You?, Art Museum KUBE, Ålesund, Norway
In-Between Days: Video from the Guggenheim Collections, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York NY, USA
Summer Exhibition 2020, RA Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
2020
The Sea is Glowing, Exportdrvo, Rijeka, Croatia
Videotage Media Art Collection: Paranormal, HKCEC Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
The Future of Silence: When Your Tongue Vanishes, Nam June Paik Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea
Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco | de Young Legion of Honor, San Francisco CA, USA
E2E (End to End), transmediale 2020, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany
2019
Gameplay. Video Games Culture, CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Every Step in the Right Direction, Singapore Biennale 2019, Singapore
24/7, Somerset House, London, England
TRANSFORMER: A Rebirth of Wonder, 180 The Strand, London, England
Cosmologic Arrows, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
Complete Technology, MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, South Korea
Serious Games, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Future Cities: Technopolis and Everyday Life, CFCCA Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester
The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030-2100, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
An Opera for Animals, RAM Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Nøtel, Unlimited, Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Game of Drones. Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen, Germany
FTSE (Farsight Stock Exchange), Bold Tendencies, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park, London, England
AI: More Than Human, The Curve, Barbican Centre, London, England (touring)
Free Panorama, Shenzhen New Media Art Festival, Pingshan Cultural Center Exhibition Gallery, Shenzhen, China
Forging the Gods, Transfer Gallery, New York NY, USA
The New Human Agenda, Akbank Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
An Opera for Animals, Para Site, Hong Kong
Artificial Landscape, in collaboration with Videotage, SOGO Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
2018
artapes. Low Form, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy
ARTBOTS, Patchlab Digital Art Festival, Krakow, Poland
Offline Browser, The 6th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition 2018, Taipei, Taiwan
Open Codes. The World as a Field of Data, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
Fetch and Deliver (Holen und Bringen), Werkleitz Festival 2018: Holen und Bringen, Halle (Saale), Germany
Rivers of Emotion, Bodies of Ore, Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway
Ecology, Bold Tendencies, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park, London, England
Quest-For-Meaning Bureau The Culture of a Good Life, KUNSTSÆLE Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Head Heap Heat, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Singapore
Rendered Cities, apexart, New York, NY
Uncanny Valleys of a Possible Future, CTM 2018: Turmoil, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2017
A Better Version of You, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea
Play Station, Art Night London, with Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
3Drifts, ASAKUSA, Tokyo, Japan
HyperPavilion, Arsenale Nord, Venice, Italy
Geomancer, Neither One Thing Or Another, Jerwood/FVU Awards, Jerwood Space, London, England
The New Normal, UCCA Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Hybrid Layers, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
Offshore: Artists explore the sea, Maritime Museum, Hull, England
All Channels Open, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, England
Hua Wei (with Kode9 / Hyperdub), Ø, Corsica Studios, London, England
2016
Glasgow International, Director's Programme, Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
SeMA Mediacity Seoul Biennial, SeMA Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
Missed Connections, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany
Vordemburge-Gildewart Award, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, England
Maybe your Lens is Scratched?, Slate Projects, London, England
Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition), Open Source Festival, London, England
Overseas (360 Video), This is Public Space, UP Projects, London, England
New Realities, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Peru
Game Video / Art, Triennale di Milano: 21st Century. Design After Design, IULM, Milan, Italy
Secret Surface, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2015
Software, Hard Problem, Cubitt Gallery, London, England
The Uncanny Valley, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, England
The Labour of Sound in a World of Debt, Vierte Welt, Berlin, Germany
Faith Dollars, Taxfree Imagination & Uptown Bliss, Assembly Point, London, England
Equalizer.Space, The Wrong, Biennial for Online Art (with Channel Normal) Dalston, Mon Amour, Open Source Festival, London, England
H0ST, Galleri Monitor, Göthenburg, Sweden
Dazed Emerging Artist Award, RA Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
Black Box Formula, Curating Contemporary Art Exhibition, RCA Royal College of Art, London, England
2014
Sky Line, Digital Commission, supported by Outset England, Art Licks Weekend, London England
Tomb, Shrine, Survey-Maker, Spare Part..., Enclave, London, England
I/P 1, Project/Number, London, England
Tabularium, Slopes, Melbourne, Australia
BitRates, Shiraz Artist House, Shiraz, Iran
Re:presence, Sto Werkstatt, London, England
SEIZE International, KÉK The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, Budapest, Hungary
Raytracer, The White Building, London, England
Delirious New Wick, V&A Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Snow Falling in a Temple, Twice, POST2, La Scatola, online Residency
Continental Drift OST, Channel Normal, online Residency
Prosthetic Aesthetics, Werkraum Bregenzerwald, Andelsbuch, Switzerland
2013
Penthouse 4C, Hack the Barbican, Barbican Centre, London, England
Night Loops, Legion TV, London, England
Bonus Levels: A Collective Tower, Art Licks Weekend, The White Building, London, England
The Wrong, Biennial for Online Art, São Paulo, Brazil
ERROR 415, ArtSlant, San Francisco, CA, USA
Pyramid Schemes, The White Building, London, England
Glass Idols, V&A Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Bring Your Own Beamer, SPACE, London, England
Exophonic 1, Watermans – West London’s Arts Centre, London, England
Designers in Residence 2012, Design Museum, London, England
Art and Social Activism, ChaShaMa Foundation, New York, NY
Assembly, Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Arts, London, England
Illuminations, Coldharbour Gallery, London, England
Performances
2025
NOX (Live), Tate Modern, London, England, 10 May
Smart City (Live), Artists' Night, Art Basel Hong Kong x Tai Kwun Artist Night, Hong Kong,China, 28 March
2024
NOX (Live), Hyperdub 20th Anniversary, The White Hotel, Manchester, 25 October at Cybernetic Serendipity: Towards AI, ICA Insititute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
2023
Nepenthe (Live), Prismatic Ground Film Festival, Chaos Computer, New York NY, USA, 3 May
The Universe Listens To Us As We Listen To It, Ignota Books,Cafe OTO, London, England, 7 January
2022
Hyperdub Presents, Corsica Studios, London, England, 2 June
Polysonic Worlds: Lawrence Lek & Evan Ifekoya, New Mystics, Somerset House, London, England, 26 May
Nepenthe (Live), Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, England, 2 April
Feature, Cafe OTO, London, England, 5 February
2020
AIDOL (Live), Unsound Festival, Kraków, Poland, October 10, online
Eastern Margins Ceremony: Lawrence Lek, yeule & Raw2.2, OHYUNG, The Yard Theatre, London, England, May 17, online
2019
Image Behaviour: Keiken / Lawrence Lek + Clifford Sage, ICA Institute of Contemporary Art London, London, England, 15 November
ASSEMBLY: Lawrence Lek, Seth Scott & Robin Simpson, Somerset House Studios, London, England, curated by Christian Marclay, 9 November
Eastern Margins Presents, Cafe OTO, London, England, 18 June
2017
Live & Ambient, with Clifford Sage, Lost Senses, Guest Projects, London, England
Heliotones, with Oliver Coates, Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway
2016
Nøtel, with Kode9, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Sonar, Barcelona, Spain; Moogfest, Durham, NC; Unsound Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Berlin Mirror (2042 Retrospective) live, Sunrise/Sunset, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2015
Unreal Estate, with Oliver Coates, 3hd Festival, HAU2, Berlin, Germany; Kammer Klang, Cafe OTO, London, England
Uncanny Halloween, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, England
Performance as Process, Chelsea College of Art, London, England
2014
Syndrome, FACT Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Liverpool, England
Bodyscape, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, England
Screenings
2024
AIDOL at Speculative Simulation Film Program, Gray Area, San Francisco, USA, 19 – 21 January
THETA at Engadin Art Talks (E.A.T.), Zuoz, Switzerland, 26 January
2023
Geomancer and AIDOL at Cantopop Icons, Metrograph, New York NY, USA
Theta at St. Moritz Art Film Festival, St Moritz, Switzerland, 1 September
Theta at What form do I take to be able to speak?, Beirut Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 June
Theta and AIDOL at Prismatic Ground Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives and Light Industry, New York NY, USA, 3 – 7 May
Theta at New Cinema Days, Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester, England, 20 April
Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD) and Geomancer at Techno Sapiens, M+, Hong Kong, 3 March and 18 March
Theta at 52nd IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 25 January – 5 February
2022
Temple Lily at Counter Encounters, Tate Modern, London, England, 29 October
AIDOL at Cineteca, Madrid, Spain, 26 February
Theta at Asia Forum, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy, 23 April
2021
AIDOL at donaufestival, Krems, Austria, 01 – 10 October
AIDOL at Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival, Blackbox Theatre, Oslo
AIDOL and Geomancer at State of Motion 2021: [Alternate/Opt] Realities, Asia Film Archive, Singapore, 30 January – 06 February
2020
AIDOL at Hainan Island International Film Festival, Hainan, China, 05 – 12 December
AIDOL at The AI Party Pep Rally, Bombina Bombast, Hypnos Theatre, Malmö, Sweden, 02 December
AIDOL at SoundTrack_Cologne17, SoundTrack_Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 14 – 17 October
AIDOL at Unsound Festival, Kraków, Poland, October 10, online
Geomancer at MIRA Festival, IDEAL Digital Arts Center, Barcelona, Spain, 1 – 30 September
Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD) at China, as the Concept, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China, August 8
AIDOL, CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, August 6
2065 at Videotage Media Art Collection: Paranormal, HKCEC Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, 20 March
Time Machine at DJ Spooky, with Ronald Guttman, Tony Torn, and Julie Atlas Muz: Performances Inspired by Alfred Jarry, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York NY, USA, 28 February
AIDOL at E2E (End to End), transmediale 2020, Volksbühne Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 28 January – 01 February
AIDOL at 49th IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 22 January – 02 February
2019
Geomancer at To Other Shores: On Techno-Sinofuturism, AI Artist Bots and New Silk Roads, ACUD Macht Neu, Berlin, Germany, 30 November
Geomancer at MUTEK Montréal, Montréal, Canada, 18 – 25 August
AIDOL at MIEFF Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 10 July
Geomancer at Present Futures Glasgow, CCA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland, 08 – 09 June
Geomancer at Stanley, Meet Alexa: AI and Filmmaking in the Flesh, BFI, London, 27 April
Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD) at Norient Musikfilm Festival, Bern / Lausanne / St. Gallen, Switzerland
2018
2065; Bonus Levels - Chapter 2: Delirious New Wick – Walkthrough at Clockenflap, Hong Kong, China
Geomancer at ArtReview Bar, London, England
Geomancer at Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival, Hotel Monotel, Kolkata, India
Pyramid Schemes; Play Station (Farsight Corporate Trailer); Geomancer in Artists Film Club, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
Geomancer in Dreaming Androids, IFFR International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Geomancer; Sinofuturism at FACT Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, Liverpool, England
IAM Internet Age Media, Barcelona, Spain
Sinofuturism (1839 – 2046 AD) at A4, Bratislava, Slovakia
2017
Geomancer at Jerwood/FVU, London, England (touring to: CCA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland; HOME, Manchester, England; Phoenix, Leicester, England; Phoenix, Exeter, England; Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, England; Arnolfini, Bristol, England)
Viewfinder: ON AIR, with videoclub UK & British Council, West Bund Art Fair, Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China
Welcome to Play Station; Farsight Corporate Promo in Both Sides Now 4, with videoclub UK & Videotage Hong Kong, HOME, Manchester, England
Geomancer in SummerLab, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Spain
Sky Line in Unsettle, in collaboration with LUX Moving Image and Daata Editions, StudioRCA, London, England
CitizensFive, programmed by Alexander Burenkov, Art Athina, Athens, Greece
Postcapitalist Desire, programmed by roaming projects, Platform, London, England
Dark Water, programmed by Tai Shani & A – Z, CGP Dilston Grove, London, England
GEGENkino Film Festival, Leipzig, Germany
Nocturnal City, programmed by Estela Oliva, Somerset House, London, England
2016
Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition) in Projections, New York Film Festival 2016, New York, NY
Kasseler Dokumentarfilm und Videofest, Kassel, Germany
Internationale Kurzfilmtage, Winterthur, Switzerland
Long Progress Bar, Lighthouse, Brighton, England
ICA Artist Film Biennial, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England; Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, England; Spike Island, Bristol, England; Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland
Tableaux, Assembly Point, London, England
Speeding & Braking: Navigating Acceleration, Goldsmiths College, London, England
Heterotopia of Rules, LEAP Magazine, West Bund Art Fair, Shanghai, China
Visions in the Nunnery, Bow Arts, London, England
Public Art Screens, Stavanger, Norway
2015
Tenderflix Artist Video Award, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
Talks
2024
Cybernetic Serendipity: Towards AI, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
2023
Art in the Age of Immersion (in Conversation with Carly Whitefield), LOOP Fair 2023, Barcelona, Spain
New Cinema Days, Abandon Normal Devices, SODA School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, 20 April
Ways of Worlding, The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies, Delft, The Netherlands, 13 April
2022
Speculative Existence: Human, Experiences, and Technology of the Future, Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia, 17 September
Theta: Future Shock, Reference Point, 180 The Strand, London, England, 28 JulyUrgency of the Arts, The Royal College of Art, London, England, 2 February
2021
What Are We Building?, MIT Wasserman Forum online, 06 April – 10 April
2020
Artist Talk: Lawrence Lek (2020 Sarah Lee Elson International Artist-in-Residence), Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton NJ, USA, 5 NovemberFirst-Person (with Alex Quicho), Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China, 2 OctoberGray Area Festival 2020: Radical Simulation, Gray Area, San Francisco CA, USA, 23 September
2019
AIDOL: Screening & Talk with Steve Goodman, ALL, Shanghai, China
To Other Shores: On Techno-Sinofuturism, AI Artist Bots and New Silk Roads, ACUD Macht Neu, Berlin, Germany, 30 November
Worldbuilding for Non-Humans. Artist talk by Lawrence Lek, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 14 July
Technology and its Intersections: Viewing Scenarios and other Platforms, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, 13 March
2017
Posthuman Worlds, Artist Talk, CAC x On-AIR Programme. Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China
Geomancer: Screening, & Talk with Anna Greenspan & Steve Goodman, ALL, Shanghai, China
The Only Path to Tomorrow. Symposium as part of Zach Blas’ exhibition Contra-Internet, Gasworks, London, England
Art Night 2017: Building Futures: Collecting New Media, with Fatos Ustek, Bishopsgate Institute, London, England
Creative AI: Film in the Age of Non-Human Authors, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, England
The New Normal: In conversation with Jacob Dreyer, UCCA, Beijing, China
Sinofuturism: A Conspiracy Theory? With Anna Greenspan & Steve Goodman, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Sonic Fictions: With Alvin Li & Steve Goodman, UCCA, Beijing, China
The Museum as Battlefield, Contemporary Art Society Annual Talk, British Museum, London, England
In conversation with Steve Goodman for Jerwood/FVU Awards, RCA Royal College of Art, London, England
Resonate Festival, Kinoteka, Belgrade, Serbia
2016
Missed Connections (talk with Devin Kenny, Lawrence Lek, Hito Steyerl, Jennifer Chan, moderated by Melissa Gronlund, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany
In conversation with Stephanie Bailey & Sophia Al-Maria, Frieze Art Fair, London, England
Sinofuturism (1839 – 2046 AD), Resonance FM / Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, England
Digital Narratives (with Karen Di Franco & Morgan Quaintance), Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
Behind the Show: Notel, Sonar by Day, Barcelona, Spain
2015
D&AD Talks, Awakening Tech, Institute of Education, London, England
OneDotZero dotdotdot Talk Series, Protein Studios, London, England
Studio Visit (with Morgan Quaintance & Cecile B. Evans), Resonance FM, UK
Bonus Levels, RCA Fine Art Lecture Series, RCA Royal College of Art, London, England
Design Interactions - Study Day, RCA Royal College of Art, London, England
Object as Measure, Artist Talk, Chelsea College of Art, London, England
2014
Speculative Sculpture, Artist Talk, Trinity College, Cambridge, England
Public Collections
British Council, London, England
Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, New York NY, USA / Venice, Italy / Bilbao, Spain / Abu Dhabi, UAEM+ Museum, Hong Kong
MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea
Museum of London, London, England
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton NJ, USA
Rubell Family Collection, Miami FL, USA
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Awards & Residencies
2023
Best Movie, St. Moritz Art Film Festival, St. Moritz, Switzerland
2021
4th VH AWARD Grand Prix, Hyundai Motor Group, Seoul, South Korea
LACMA 2021 Art + Technology Lab, LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles LA, USA
2022
Sarah Lee Elson, Class of 1984, International Artist-in-Residence Program, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton NJ, USA
2017
Jerwood / Film & Video Umbrella Award, London, EnglandStavros Niarchos Foundation Machine Learning PhD Scholarship, RCA Royal College of Art, London, EnglandOutset Young Production Fund for Art Night, London, EnglandChina Connections Through Culture Grant, British Council, EnglandArts Council England, Grants for the Arts for Virtual Reality Development, England
2016
VG Award, Vordemburge-Gildewart Foundation, Rapperswil, SwitzerlandArtist-in-Residence, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, EnglandMVWorks Artist Incubator Grant, Makerversity, Somerset House, London, England
2015
Dazed Emerging Artist Award, RA Royal Academy of Arts, London, EnglandArtist-in-Residence, Performance as Process, Delfina Foundation, London, EnglandTenderflix Artist Video Award, Tenderpixel, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
2014
Artist International Development Fund, Arts Council England, EnglandOutset England Artist Project Fund for Art Licks Weekend Digital Commission, England
2013
Artist-in-Residence, Hack the Barbican, Barbican Centre, London, England
2012
Designer-in-Residence, Design Museum, London, England
Monographs
2017
Lawrence Lek and Kellenberger-White, Lawrence Lek: 2065 (London: Sadie Coles HQ, 2019)
2019
Naomi Pearce, Neither One Thing or Another : Patrick Hough, Lawrence Lek (London: Jerwood Charitable Foundation, 2017)
Selected Publications
2024
Hans Ulrich Obrist (ed.), WORLDBUILDING: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age (Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2024) (exh. cat.)
2023
Cyane Tornatzky and Brendan Kelley, An Artistic Approach to Virtual Reality (Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press, 2023)
2022
Lin Yi-Hsiu (ed.), C-LAB Future Media Arts Festival (Taiwan: Taiwan Living Arts Foundation, 2022) Francesca Gavin, Rough Version: the NTS Interviews with Francesca Gavin 2016-2021 (Copenhagen: At Last Books, 2022)
2021
Alex Quicho, Small Gods (Hampshire: Zero Books, 2021) 2020Kim Yoonseo (ed.), The Future of Silence: When your tongue vanishes (Seoul: Nam June Paik Art Center, 2020) Janna Keegan and Claudia Schmuckli, Beyond the Uncanny Valley (San Francisco: Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, 2020) Claudia Emmert, Jurgen Bleibler, Ina Neddermeyer and Dominik Busch (eds), Game Of Drones: Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Friedrichshafen: Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, 2020) Anya Harrison, ‘All Systems Go’, Science Fiction (London: Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press, 2020) Ana Teixeira Pinto, ‘Alien Nations’, Science Fiction (London: Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press, 2020)
2019
Johanna Gosse, ‘Broken English: Allegories of Media Ruin in The Digital Age’, Artists' Moving Image Britain Since 1989 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019)
2015
Lawrence Lek and Andi Schmied, Jing Jin City (Budapest: Andi Schmied, 2015)
2014
Lucy A. Sames, Lawrence Lek et al, Sci Fi Paganism (London: Enclave, 2014)
Artist Recordings
2020
AIDOL 爱道 (OST) (London: Hyperdub Records, 2020)
2019
Temple 寺庙 (OST) (London: The Vinyl Factory, 2019)
2017
Geomancer OST (Los Angeles: Eternal Dragonz, 2017)
For all enquiries please contact the team at Sadie Coles HQ.
