Cao Fei and the evolving worlds of digital realism

Cao Fei uses film, installation and virtual platforms to chart China’s rapid transformation. Her long-running projects show how everyday life, factory work and online fantasy merge into a single, unstable reality.

From the AD HOC NEWS Art Desk » Work Series & Retrospective Desk - The editors cover exhibitions, auctions, collections, prizes and artistic positions. Published: July 11, 2026 · Last checked: July 11, 2026, 10:58 PM

Cao Fei has built an influential practice around the fictions and frictions of contemporary China. Her sustained focus on digital worlds, factory labor and urban transformation makes her work series central to any discussion of new media art.

Early factory worlds and urban change

In the early 2000s, Cao Fei developed video and photo series that followed workers and young people in rapidly industrializing Chinese cities. Projects such as Whose Utopia and City Watch examined how standardized factory routines collide with personal dreams.

These works often place choreographed performance or pop-cultural gesture inside fluorescent-lit production halls and dormitories. The contrast stresses how individual aspiration and collective discipline coexist within the same industrial landscape.

Imagined realities in online spaces

Later series foreground online platforms and virtual environments as parallel social worlds. In projects like RMB City, Cao Fei treats massively multiplayer and networked spaces as genuine extensions of urban life rather than escapist add-ons.

Characters move between screen and street, shifting identities as easily as they change avatars. The artist’s long-term engagement with these digital scenes underlines how economic pressures, desire and fantasy all migrate into network culture.

The work core and recurring motifs

Cao Fei works primarily with film, photography and large-scale installation, often combining them into immersive environments. Recurring motifs include factory choreography, cosplay, gaming culture, speculative architecture and makeshift domestic interiors.

Where the artist stands now

Cao Fei’s studio continues to develop long-duration film and installation projects that track how everyday life, labor and digital platforms intertwine across Chinese cities and global networks.

Key facts on Cao Fei

• Artist: Cao Fei
• Medium / Genre: Film, installation and photography (new media)
• Born: 1978, Guangzhou, China
• Place(s) of practice: Studio practice centered in Beijing
• Active since: late 1990s, with wider international visibility from the early 2000s
• Key work groups: Whose Utopia, RMB City, Haze and Fog, long-running factory and urban video series
• Current/last exhibition: Recent institutional presentations with film and installation formats in Asian and European museums
• Major collections: Works by Cao Fei are held in several major museum collections in Asia, Europe and North America.
• Awards: The artist has received multiple international recognitions and biennial invitations since the 2000s.
• Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window

Frequently asked questions about Cao Fei

Which themes run through Cao Fei’s major work series?
The artist repeatedly engages with factory labor, rapid urbanization and online role-playing, using film and installation to show how social reality and digital fantasy overlap.

How does Cao Fei use virtual worlds in her projects?
She treats gaming and networked platforms as extensions of the city, building fictional spaces that mirror and distort contemporary Chinese architecture and everyday routines.

What formats does Cao Fei mainly work in?
Cao Fei’s practice centers on moving-image works, multi-channel installations and photographic series, often presented together in immersive exhibition settings.

This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.