Cao came to prominence during the early 2000s as postinternet art thrived. While her videos, performances and, most recently, virtual reality works continue to speak to technological progress and the transformation of China, it is the human experience in all of this that fascinates her the most – and has led to her staying power. ‘I come from the pre-internet era,’ she has said, ‘and what moves me is the relationship formed through emotions, people, objects and the world, not only algorithms and data.’ It is this broadness in her curiosity that registers with audiences, not least those visiting the Lenbachhaus in Munich, where her work explored the relationship between digital culture and the real and virtual worlds. The artist also had solo exhibitions at SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney (where the artist transformed the galleries into, for example, a Beijing cinema foyer and a yum cha restaurant, with the help of Hong Kong-based Beau Architects) and Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, the last being Cao’s largest to date.