Xu Yang
Xu Yang’s work explores her personal interests, childhood fantasies, fetish and identity through painting, photography and mixed medias. Yang’s work looks into history, finding the things that are a part of our nature, like sugar - addictive but we might like to shy away from - sexuality and body.
Much of Xu’s work is inspired by the Rococo period of painting. From the french revolution onward, the period was seen as void, lavish and corrupt. With its privileging of power and Female stereotype, Rococo is buried under the weight of 20th century moral disciplines. Yang seeks to resuscitate it to speak to our contemporary moment.
Yang attempts to uncover Rococo’s elaborate and extravagant style in paintings through playful brushstrokes. Yang paints works layer by layer with smudges and touches. All those different twists are used to feel the creaminess of the oil paint as it slides onto the textile—like applying icing on a cake, they are sickening but delicious. Rococo is such a maligned art form, but it is underpinned by idealisations, hopes and dreams we should have access to.
For Yang, the emptiness in the mirror around the figure and dark background brings loneliness, tension and a sense of danger. The space is private, but inviting, and aims to engage with the audience. Her face is blurred, or covered by a mask. She could be anyone, or anyone could be her. Yang portrays the ‘self’ as a skin for anyone to put on.
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B. in 1996 in Shandong, China, Lives in London, Britain.
Education:
2018 - 2020 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2015 - 2018 BA (1st Class Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, London
2014 - 2015 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, CCW, UAL, London
Solo Exhibitions:
2020 Pandora’s Candy Box, Four You Gallery, Online Exhibition
2020 100 Carats Diamond, ArtWorks Project Space, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London.
2019 Present but In and Out of Focus, Central Saint Martins, London (Performance).
2017 An Empty Room, Deyin Hardware Head Office, ZiBo, ShanDong, China. 2017 She is Me as Myself, Yishu Gallery, ChangZhou, China.
2016 Contemporary Painting, City Milu Space, ChangZhou, China.
Group Exhibitions:
2021 Am I Asking For Miracles Here?, The House of St Barnabas, London. 2021 Reframing the Looking Glass, Cuturi Gallery, Singapore.
2021 42 Is, 42 Art Space, Beijing.
2021 Before Rejuvenation, CouttsArt, Shanghai.
2021 Transcendental, Cuturi Gallery, Singapore.
2021 Redirecting, Tree Art Museum, Beijing.
2020 Softer Softest, Andrea Festa Fine Art, Rome.
2020 Wintergreen Boxwood, No 20 Arts, London.
2020 ReA! Art Fair 2020, Rea Arte, Milan.
2020 TwentyTwenty Women, Artistellar Gallery, Online Exhibition
2020 London Grads Now., Saatchi Gallery, London.
2020 A Rudimentary Education, Art Lacuna, London.
2020 RCA & Slade Graduate Show, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London. 2020 Final, not Over, Unit 1 Gallery, London.
2020 Body Soul and Time, online exhibition, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-xijjC5pvH_8usNoceU_BA
2020 Be water, my friend, online exhibition, www.grapevine.earth/water 2019 Little Originals, Dock Street Studios, Dundee, Scotland.
2019 ArtWork Open 2019, ArtWorks Project Space, London.
2019 Beautiful China, Beautiful World, Golden Era of China-UK, The Palace of Westminster, London. Xu Yang CV
2019 Air Open 2019, Air Gallery, Manchester.
2019 Where We Once Were Someone, A Yngspc Online Exhibition, Online, Instagram.
2019 Celebration, Roost Studios and Art Gallery, NYC, United States.
2018 Beijing Summer Show, NL Gallery, Beijing, China.
2018 Chain, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China.
2018 Neulinge, The Crypt Gallery, London.
2018 HuangYan, Chelsea Triangle Space, Chelsea College of arts, London. 2017 Bring Me My Cloak, LVP House, North Acton, London, United Kingdom. 2017 Xu Yang, Ghost Space, Wimbledon Library, Wimbledon college of art, London.
2017 Unicorn, Wimbledon Library Space, London.
2017 The Currents of Identity, The Crypt Gallery, London. Curated: Dr. Annie Xu, Yang Xu.
2017 Infinite Possibility, Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green Rd, London.
2017 To be continued… , North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei Province, China.
2017 Remarquable, Anaglifos Art Gallery, Carrer d’en Monec, Barcelona, Spain.
2017 Materiality in Painting, 26 Spaces, Wimbledon College of Arts, Wimbledon, London.
2017 Olympus UAL Photography Award, Art Bermondsey Project Space, London.
2017 One Year Anniversary Art Fair, Deptford Does Art, The Brookmill, London.
2016 Exhibit Here’s Art Maze, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse, London.
2016 Bridge–Crossing & Conversation, Totem Il Canale Gallery, Venice, Italy. 2016 Bad Art is a Journey, 1933 Ancient Slaughterhouse, ShangHai, China. 2016 Line of Edge, Art in Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. 2016 Capsticks Exhibition, Selected from WCA Students, London.
2016 Moment, Coningsby Gallery, London.