Karl Weiming Lu
Karl Weiming Lu is regarded as a true global Renaissance man of our time, his life and art span from East to West. He was born in 1962, into a big intellectual and art family for generations in Hangzhou, China. He was a pioneer of Chinese Elite Students Movement of early 1980s, and a civil engineer and building designer in 1980s China. Besides civil engineering and building design, Lu also worked for The New Art magazine of China Academy of Art in mid 1980s, and participated the significant “85 New Wave Art Movement”.
In 1991, Karl W. Lu relocated to Australia to have his postgraduate studies in philosophy, and then, international studies in The University of Wollongong and University of Sydney respectively; and further achieved triple Masters degrees in Art, Design, and Architecture in The University of New South Wales Australia. He has returned to art practice professionally since 2000 and exhibited & published globally in Australia, China, Japan, USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Dutch/Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, and Ukraine, etc.
Trained in both Eastern & Western culture and art traditions, Lu always combine the two to create unique hybrid contemporary artworks with his own character, originality, and signature. Lu created his “Memory Series 2002 – 03”, which positively [in terms of positivism] recalled early 1980’s elite Chinese students’ movement based on his memory of a multi-disciplines’ student salon activities, in the world culture heritage city Hangzhou, China, where Lu and his friends of China Academy of Art, and Zhejiang University, etc. pondered arts, science, philosophy, psychology, art, architecture, and political economics. Thus, Lu always said that “All my interests in science, philosophy and art come together into my artworks!”. His painting “Memory @ Talking about Dreams” of the Memory Series originated his distinctive “Dripping Fluid Effect” in 2003 and exhibited and published in 2003 and 2004 by College of Fine Arts, UNSW Australia, since then, which has been further developed by Karl Lu into his on-going Abstract “Dripping Fluid Series” which also led a wave global hot pop art phenomenon of various “dripping flow art” over the past decade. Following the positive “Memory Series”, Lu manifestoed the “Contemporary Art Positivism” in 2008 and created the on-going historical “Positive Dialectic Global Life Series 2008 – xx” with an innovative style of Digital Graphic Design Paintings painted with graphic design thinking and effects to positively address Karl W. Lu himself as a Master of Art and Design as well. Since 2010, Lu has created his unique Chinese Ink-brush Abstract works of the “Origin Series 2010 - xx” to express his philosophical, scientific, and artistic intuition and understanding about the origin of universe, life, and art. Since 2012, Lu has also become a leading art critic with his Annual Manifesto Series on Contemporary Chinese Art published with top art web media in China. Karl W. Lu is a Premium Plus Member of National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), Australia, and a Member of Asian Australian Artists Association.
A. Origin Series 2010 – 2017:
Statement:
The ongoing "Origin Series 2010 - 20xx" was initially created by Karl W. Lu in 2010, which abstractly express Lu's philosophical, scientific, and artistic view & intuition about the origin of art, life, and universe. So far, this is the most recent and unique abstract style created by Karl W. Lu with his philosophical and scientific mind plus artistic vision with bold and fluent Chinese ink-brush strokes. The “Origin @ The Origin #001” is the original and initial work of the "Origin Series" since 2010, which was first published digitally in 2010, since then, it has also made great impact on logo design trend all over the world.
B. Dripping Fluid Series 2003 – 2017:
Statement:
"The Dripping Fluid Series 2003 - 20XX" was initially abstracted by Karl W. Lu from the "Dripping Fluid Effect" out of his painting "Memory: Talking About Dreams" of his "Memory Series 2002 -2003" painted in early 2003, which was exhibited and published with the text particularly indicating the usage of “Dripping Fluid Effect” in 2003 and 2004 by The College of Fine Arts [Faculty of Art & Design], The University of New South Wales, Australia, where were full of international students and visitors. Since then, "The Dripping Fluid Style" has become one of Karl W. Lu's distinctive abstract styles to show the Beauty of the "Dripping Fluid Itself" with its broad links to universe, life, and art. Further, since then and over the past decade, both Karl W. Lu’s “Memory: Talking about Dreams” and his on-going “Dripping Fluid Series” had also led a hot wave of Dripping Fluid Art phenomenon around the world.
C. The Positive Dialectic Global Life Series 2008 – 2016
Statement:
Karl W. Lu manifestoed his Contemporary Art Positivism in 2008, soon after he well completed three Master's degrees in Art, Design, and Architecture (design & computing) at University of New South Wales, Australia. As part of his Manifesto of Contemporary Art Positivism, Karl Lu has originated his on-going “The Positive Dialectic Global Life Series” since 2008 to positively [in terms of historical & philosophical positivism] and auto-biographically recall and record his global life journey of our time which may also dialectically reflect or imply the global life journey of all those who may share parts or similar life experience with Lu's. Also, to positively address Karl Lu himself not only a true Master of Art, but also a Master of Design with distinction in graphic design, he intentionally painted “The Positive Dialectic Global Life Series” as a series of Digital Graphic Design Style which are absolutely painted with acrylic & oil as real painting, but painted like digitally designed graphic posters, book or magazine covers, or, painted with certain graphic design thinking and effects!!! As a result, since 2008, Lu had also created another innovative type painting, namely, Karl W. Lu Graphic Designed Painting, or, Karl W. Lu Painted Graphic Design.
There have some detailed statements regarding above three series artworks, or about a few Lu’s paintings may be found on Karl W. Lu’s artist website www.kwluart.com
