An exhibit from Wu's TCM series features a unicorn, a popular motif in Western culture. [Photo provided to China Daily]

At the opening of Menina, the first installment of Wu's Beijing solo exhibition on April 20 at the Today Art Museum, Wu recalls being "extremely nervous and excited".

"I was unsure how the average viewer or the wider art community would respond to my maiden exhibition," Wu tells China Daily in Beijing.

Occupying the spacious, two-story Exhibition Hall No 3 of the museum, the large-scale exhibition highlighted the artist's in-depth and multidimensional investigation and interpretation of Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, with a myriad of gigantic oil paintings, sketches, sculptures, installations and new media pieces.

Staged from April to July at the Today Art Museum, Menina turned out to be an artistic and social phenomenon, attracting immense academic interest and public attention.

Around 30,000 visitors paid 20 yuan per ticket to savor the artistic creations by a greenhorn "from out of nowhere".

More than 200 newspapers, magazines, websites and social media influencers published photo stories, reviews about the exhibition and profiles of the little-known artist.

"A newcomer to the contemporary Chinese art scene, Wu has shown an amazing ability to construct a set of artistic languages with a distinctive personal trait," commented Wang Meng, a researcher with the National Art Museum of China, at the seminar on Menina.

"With this heavyweight solo exhibition, Wu has managed to put a piece of classic Western art into the dynamic context of contemporary China, evoking memories about history and raising questions about the direction of China's vanguard art movement," according to Phoenix Art, an art media company in Beijing.

More importantly, "Wu's site-specific art project has successfully torn down the boundaries, making it possible for viewers to look at an iconic artwork from multiple perspectives, and to interact with artworks in an immersive way. This is an unprecedented phenomenon," said Yang Wei, a Changsha-based critic at the seminar on Menina.