Lulu Ao is an artist, art researcher, and art educator. She is currently a fully funded PhD candidate at Loughborough University, where she specialises in contemporary art practice and theory, with a particular focus on text art since the mid-1960s. In her research, the theories of the pioneer British group Art & Language have served as a foundational source.
Lulu’s broader research interests span visual culture, post-conceptual condition of art, image theories, linguistic theories, as well as other postmodernism and contemporary art criticism. Parallel to her doctoral research, Lulu lectures part-time on drawing discourse and analysis, modern and contemporary art and design, as well as art theory to undergraduate students at Loughborough University.
Beyond her academic pursuits, Lulu has earned early acclaim as an artist. In 2014, she received the Bronze Prize at the Triennial Anhui Province (China) Art Exhibition and was the only student artist from her province selected for the Quinquennial National Art Exhibition Selection. She was also awarded the highest prize in the Anhui Province Segment of the National University Art Exhibition. Lulu’s work has been shown in China, the UK, France, and Germany, garnering institutional sponsorships and an international cohort of collectors.