Yang Maoyuan

Born in Dalian (China) in 1966, is an internationally known artist, with a vast and varied language, which includes painting, sculpture, photography and installation. Graduated in 1989 at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, in the same year he took part in the historical overview China Avant-Garde Art Exhibition, at the China Art Gallery in Beijing.

In 2002 he received the CCAA Prize for Chinese Contemporary Art.

In 2011 Maoyuan has been selected to represent his country at the China National Pavilion of 54.

Venice Biennale. The chinese artist has exhibited in cities such as Berlin, London, Warsaw and in 2003 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His work is represented in several public and private collections, like the Sigg Collection in Switzerland, Rockffeller Collection or the Ordos Art Museum in China.

His ABC-ARTE's personal exhibition han been his third in Italy since 2001, when he exhibited at Villa Breda (Padova), while the last one was in 2009, in Palazzo Riccardi, Florence.

In 1994, accompanied by a team of archaeologists, he made two visits to the site of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, a city that has long served the role as a crossroad between East and West, whose ruins are now swept by the winds of the Gobi desert.

Maoyuan was so impressed by the effect that these winds have on the ancient city, to turn this experience into a recurrent theme in his creative process: since 1996, in fact, the interaction between humans and land has characterized his oil paintings, in which dark blue sky, golden lands and human bodies embedded in earth are combined.

Dalian born artist (but lives in Beijing) often insists on human body's forms: in paintings, such as in his spherical goats and sheep (among the most popular and well known works in his production) he works on body's lines exasperation.

In recent years, he has focused his research on the development of a sculptural practice focused on issues concerning relations between Asian and Western culture: it is enough to emphasize the choice of a material way not widespread in China as marble, quoting and at the same time questioning Western aesthetic.

Through his denial operations of the classic form, usually done by sanding or sandblasting, Maoyuan introduces the contrast between Western idea of debate and the notion of Confucian consensus (a very important element for chinese indirect communication):decisions in China, are usually taken by consensus to avoid conflict and ensuring that none of the parties is too unhappy with the chosen solution. Maoyuan's elimination of bust's ends, as well as rounding animal skins, is this need to iron out all opinions on the same plane.