Working primarily with painting, Chu’s current practice examines how painting can adapt to and intervene in modes of viewing shaped by social media. Recent work considers online platforms as a primary site for the circulation and reception of images, investigating how painting might recalibrate attention, temporality, and embodied looking within fast-paced feeds. He also engages with wider social issues, including the prefaced by young people in contemporary China, the education system, and the realities of war—themes that recur throughout his work. He aims for his work to maintain a clear connection to contemporary social realities and to resonate with people navigating life today.
Selected exhibitions include Visions (The Storey Gallery, Lancaster, 2025); Ferens Art Gallery Open Exhibition (Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 2024); New Jiangnan (BFM Art Center, Suzhou, 2023); Cloudy to Clear (Yard Gallery, Shanghai, 2023); Beacon (Josh Lilley, London, 2020); 50/50 (Fold Gallery, London, 2020); and Youth Art 100 (Guardian Art Center, Beijing, 2019). Chu received the KUART Academic Nomination Award (库艺术学术提名奖) (2020).