18Gallery 18 Zhongshan East Road (E1), 4F Shanghai Chine
18Gallery is proud to host famous Yang YongLiang. For this show the artist prepared a special set of new amazing artworks and large installation. From an amazing landscape that is ten meters long to a giant dragon coming in the gallery space from a window, Yang YongLiang has prepared one of his most impressive solo show ever.
The theme of the show is 'cement', which represents the current China “particularly Shanghai very well!” as the artist puts it himself. Everywhere it is “under construction and cement is everywhere”.
As an artist Yang YongLiang appears as the one who captures very well this time of great evolution and changes. Yang Yongliang is a Shanghainese artist whostudied traditional Chinese art such as shui mo painting, “cun” and calligraphy from an early age.His stunning compilations of thousands of tiny photographic images combine his personal interests within the compositional style of Chinese traditional paintings and present a 'New Classic' artistic expression.
When viewing Yang’s photographic works at a distance, they are dreamlike Shanshui paintings. Up close, they become shockingly modern city views. The scenes of construction sites, large cranes, traffic signs and fly-overs, that all Shanghai citizens are so familiar with, have become critical elements in his artworks. These common objects can be found everywhere in Shanghai and yet Yang Yongliang has arranged them to fit into the traditional Chinese Paintings' composition. Yang perfectly handles the contradictions between the ephemeral and solid, the vigorous and gentle, the sparse and bold, the beautiful and ugly: whilst the entire pictures are poetically harmonious, the details are the 'blots on the landscape'.