Born in Shanghai in 1980.
He studied at the China Fine Art Academy Institute.
Yang Yongliang is a resident of Shanghai, China who depends heavily on his a camera and a laptop computer to make his art. Using only these tools—and a knowledge of traditional Chinese painting traditions – Yang Yongliang invents urban scenes that depict skyscrapers under construction, freeway systems, electrical power plants, and bustling urban corridors.
His compositions starkly reveal the impacts of technological progress that China has undergone over past decades.
His work has been exhibited internationally at museums and biennials, such as Thessaloniki Biennale in Greece (2009), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2012), National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (2012), Moscow Biennale (2013), Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (2013), Daegu Photo Biennale in Korea (2014), Singapore ArtScience Museum (2014), Modern Art Museum Paris (2015), Kunst und Kultur in Neuried e.V (2015), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2015), Somerest House London (2016, 2013), Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney (2016, 2011); collected by more than 20 public institutes including the British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, San Francisco Asian Art Museum and etc.
Yang currently lives and works between New York and Shanghai.
Yongliang is among a generation of young artists who came of age after the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and therefore embraces a level of artistic freedom that is not common among past generations of Chinese artists. Yang Yongliang combines ancient Chinese art techniques, such as shui mo painting and calligraphy, with photographic elements of modern urban Shanghai, arranged in the traditional composition of Chinese landscape, to produce artworks with a perfect balance between fragility and danger, beauty and cruelty.
AWARDS
Asia Society – Asia Arts Game Changer Awards NORTH AMERICA – Awarded (2020)
Asia Society – Asia Arts Game Changer Awards INDIA – Awarded (2019)
Prix Pictet – The Global Award in Photography and Sustainability – Nominated (2019)
40th Anniversary of the Rencontres d’Arles – Discovery Prize – Nominated (2009)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Vanishing Mountains, Whitestone Gallery, Beijing, China
2024 Parallel Metropolis, Sullivan+Strumpf, Melbourne, Australia
Imagined Landscapes, L’Abbaye Espace d’Art Contemporain, Annecy, France
Parallel Metropolis, Sullivan+Strumpf, Melbourne, Australia
Vanishing Shore, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2023 Vanishing Landscape, Sullivan+Strumpf, Singapore
Glows in the Arctic, Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
Imagined Landscape, PARIS-B, Paris, France
2022 Imagined Landscape, Whitestone Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2021 Journey to the Dark II, Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
Imagined Landscape, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia
Imagined Landscape, Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, China
2019 OCMAEXPAND: Eternal Landscape, Orange County Art Museum, Santa Ana, USA
Artificial Wonderland, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Views of Water, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong, China
Eternal Landscape, HdM Gallery, London, UK
2018 Salt 14: Yang Yongliang, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, USA
Journey to the Dark, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia
Journey to the Dark, Whitestone Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 Time Immemorial, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
Time Immemorial, Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, China
2016 Time Immemorial, SHIBUNKAKU, Tokyo, Fukuoka and Kyoto, Japan
Fall into Oblivion, Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore
2015 YAN, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale Review, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
2013 Moonlit Metropolis, Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China
Silent Valley, MC2 Gallery, Milano, Italy
The Moonlight, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
2012 The Moonlight, Magda Danysz Galleries, Shanghai, China
2011 The Peach Blossom Colony, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Beijing, China
2010
Heavenly City, Mc2gallery-Milan
Views from China: Yang Yongliang and The Modern Metropolis, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, USA
Artistic Conception: Landscape, My Humble House, Taipei, Taiwan
Heavenly City, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
Yang Yongliang Solo, Melbourne Intercultural Fine Art, Melbourne, Australia
2009 Yang Yongliang Photographic Works, Limn Art Gallery, San Francisco, USA City of Phantom Visions, OFOTO Gallery, Shanghai, China
2008 Heavenly City & On the Quiet Water, OFOTO Gallery, Shanghai, China
2006 Phantom Landscape, OFOTO Gallery, Shanghai, China
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 ENNOVA Art Biennale, Ennova Art Museum, Langfang, China Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, CA, USA
Travelers Mirror Cities, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
2024 Babel Heureuse, Luxembourg City Museum, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Gmunden Photo, Stadtgarten Gmunden & Kunsthaus Blaue Butter, Gmunden, Austria
Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene, Nasher Museum of Art, NC, USA.
Your Light, My Light, Chinese Cultural Center, Bucharest, Romania Timeless Masterpieces, New Art Museum, Singapore
Where Mountains Meet the Sea, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China.
Shan Shui Reboot, China Institute, New York, NY, USA Landscape as Metaphor: Contemporary Voices, Alisan Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Rebirth of the Dragon, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH, USA Year of Dragon, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
2023 Everybody Talks About the Weather, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
Summoning Memories: Art beyond Chinese Traditions, Asia Society, Houston, TX, USA
Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene, deCordova, Boston, MA, USA
L.E.V. Festival, Matadero Madrid, Madrid, Spain
METro-BIOSIS, 5th Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, Shanghai, China Reconstructing Light and Shadow, Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
We Love Singapore, Whitestone Gallery, Singapore
We Love China, Whitestone Gallery, Beijing, China We Love Korea, Whitestone Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Sailing: Contemporary Echo of Maritime Silk Road, Zhangjiagang, China
2022 The Big Picture, Nassau County Art Museum, Long Island, NY, USA A Gateway to Possible Worlds, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France Beyond the Mountain, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA Summer Group Show, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia
Between Shan Shui, Thames City 1974 Club, London UK
2021 The Earth as A Legacy, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France Landscapes of the Soul, Asian Arts Museum, Nice, France
Glow Shenzhen International Arts Festival, Shenzhen, China Thousand Mirages, The Mixc, Shenzhen, China
Digital Art Fair Asia, Asia Standard Tower, Hong Kong, China
What Happened Here?, Appetite, Singapore
Grand Opening, Meta ZiWU, Shanghai, China
2020 Longing for Nature, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, Switzerland Scenery in Mock-up, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA Immaterial/Re-material, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Les Flots Écoulés, Abbaye de Jumièges, Jumièges, France
Out of the Shadows, Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, USA
2019 Diversity for Peace, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Venice, Italy A Fairy Tale in Red Times, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Cannes XR, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France
Art of the Mountain, China Institute, New York, USA
Pal(ate)/ette/, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
Hua Yuan, MGM COTAI Theater, Macau, China
2018 Endangered Species, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, USA Photo Brussels Festival 03, Hangar Art Center, Ixelles, Belgium 2050. A Brief History of the Future, The Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium and National Taiwan
Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
Trompe-L’Oeil, Sullivan+Strumpf, Singapore
Inside Outside: A Century of East Asian Landscape 1900s-2000s, Samuel P. Harm Museum of Art,
University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Shanghai Beat, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan Altering Home, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Worlds Apart, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, USA Photography Biennale, Museum for Art and Visual Culture, Odense, Denmark
I Object, The British Museum, London, UK
Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota, USA
Rebuild Utopia, OCT Art & Design, Shenzhen, China
Beyond Brush and Ink: The Multiplicity of Eastern Aesthetic, China Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Mountains and Streams, CFHILL Art Space, Stockholm, Sweden
Art of the Mountain, China Institute Gallery, New York, USA
Inky Bytes, Museum of Arts and Crafts – MKG Hamburg, Germany
2017 The Digital Showcase, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The Roads of Translation, Foundation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Switzerland Digital Matters, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, UK Digital – The World of Alternative Realities, Justin Art House Museum, Victoria, Australia
Art is Science, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, China
China in Motion, Annecy Museum, Annecy, France
Energy Filed, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
The Five Moons, Return of the Nameless and Unknown, PyeongChang Biennale, Pyeongchang, Korea
Prix Pictet: Disorder, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, USA Land and People, Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia Behold Land, People: People and Land in Chinese Contemporary Photography, Geological Museum and the City Gallery, Ramat Hasharon, Israel
2016 Jimei Arles Photography Festival, Xiamen, China
Après Babel, Traduire, Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean, Marseille, France
Beijing Independent Film Festival, Li Space, Beijing, China Humanistic Nature and Society (Shan Shui), Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, China
Ink Remix: Contemporary art from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Museum of Brisban, Brisbane, Australia
Shan Shui Within, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China Grain and Pixel – 150 Years of Chinese Photography, China Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium
Another Landscape, Yang Art Museum, Beijing, China
Prix Pictet: Disorder, Municipal Gallery of Athens, Athens, Greece; Somerest House, London, UK
Ink Remix: Contemporary art from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, Australia
2015 Prix Pictet: Disorder, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France Grain and Pixel, Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China Copyleft: China Appropriation Art, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China Shanghai Ever, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China Bizzarreland – Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography, Dadi Art Museum, Hefei, China;
Kunstraum Villa Friede, Bonn, Germany
Shan Shui – An Insight into the Future, Palazzo Flangini, Venice, Italy China8 – Contemporary Art from China, Foundation for Arts and Culture, Bonn, Germany
Aandacht! Aandacht! – Stormopkomst Festival, De Warande, Turnhout, Belguim
State of Play, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Ink Remix: Contemporary art from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Dislocation: Urban Experience in Contemporary East Asian Photography, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, USA
2050. A Brief History of the Future, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Brussels; The Louvre, Paris, France
2014 Art & Arcade, MU Strijp-S, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Outside the Lines – New Art From China, RH Contemporary Art, New York, USA
30th International Festival of Sarajevo, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, Greece
Aura of Poetry, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China 1st Xinjiang International Art Biennale, Urumqi, China
Phantom City, Rotorua Museum, Rotorua, New Zealand
5th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
5th Daegu Photo Biennale, Culture&Arts Center, Daegu, South Korea Contemporary Photography in China 2009-2014, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
China’s Changing Landscape, Nordic Watercolour Museum, Skärhamn, Sweden
4th Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore Art Science Museum, Singapore
Babel, destiny of a myth, Libraries of Pantin, Pantin, France
Staging Encounters – Ten Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography 2005-2014, Lianzhou Foto, Lianzhou, China
High Mountains, Flowing Waters, China Cultural Center, Berlin, Germany
2013 Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Insightful Charisma, Himalayas Art Museum, Shanghai, China
DE LEUR TEMPS, Hangar à Bananes Art Center, Nantes, France Images Festival: How far away is the horizon?, Holbæk, Denmark Occupy Utopia, Copenhagen, Denmark
Seven sunsets, waiting dawns, all in one. How to kill a wondrous time…not wanting a thousand hours, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China Space-time: 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia 1,2,3,b4, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki – SMCA, Thessaloniki, Greece
New Ink, Sotheby’s Hong Kong Gallery, Hong Kong, China
City in Picture, Picture of a City, City Museum Zwolle, Zwolle, Netherlands Winds of the East, Al Blu Gallery in Prussia, Naples, Italy Dreamers: AlexandFelix / Alessandro Lupi / Yang Yongliang, Palazzo Tagliaferro Contemporary
Culture Center, Milano, Italy
Landmark: The Fields of Photography, Somerset House, London, UK
2012 A Sprinkle of Salt: Shi Zhiying / Yang Yongliang, MOT/ARTS, Taipei, Taiwan
Printed Image in China: From the 8th – 21th Centuries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Conceptual Renewal – Short History of Chinese Contemporary Photographical Art, SiShang Art Museum, Beijing, China
Creators Project: Beijing 2012, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Babel, Museum of Fine Arts of Lille, Lille, France
Time Catcher, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
2011 One Hundred flowers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Metropolis / City Life in the Urban Age, Noorderlicht International Photo festival, Groningen, Netherlands
The Eye Is a Lonely Hunter: Images of Humankind, 4th edition of the Fotofestival, Mannheim / Ludwigshafen / Heidbelberg, Germany
Shan Shui – Poetry without sound, Chinese contemporary landscapes from the Sigg Collection,Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland
2009 Drama / Stage, Urban Photography in Shanghai, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2nd Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki, Greece
Discovery Award, 40th Anniversary of the Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, USA
2008 Two Points: 2008 Chinese Contemporary Art, Palazzo Frisacco, Tolmezzo, Italy
Stairway to Heaven: From Chinese Street to Monument and Skyscraper, Bates College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
Material Link, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
Group Exhibition, Urban Public, Hamburg, Germany
Mixed Maze, Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK
2007 Art Now 2007, Danwon Arts Festival, Gyeonggido Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea
Five, Pingyao Internatioanl Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
COLLECTIONS
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College (Ohio, USA)
Arendt Art Collection (Arendt & Medernach, Luxembourg)
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
Bates College Museum of Art (Maine, USA)
The British Museum (London, UK)
Brooklyn Museum (New York, USA)
Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Davis Museum at Wellesley College （Massachusetts, USA）
Deutsche Bank (Hong Kong, China)
DSL Collection (Paris, France)
Fidelity Investment Corp. Collection (USA)
Franks-Suss Collection (London, UK)
How Art Museum (Shanghai, China)
HSBC Hong Kong (Shanghai, China)
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon (Oregon, USA)
M+ Sigg Collection (Hong Kong, China)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
Middlebury College Museum of Art (Vermont, USA)
Museum of Arts and Crafts (Hamburg, Germany)
Museum of Modern Art (Paris, France)
Museum of Mankind (Paris, France)
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego, USA)
The National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
Nevada Art Museum (Nevada, USA)
The Rare Books Department of the National Library of France (Paris, France)
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art (Florida, USA)
San Francisco Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, USA)
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (USA)
Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University (Kansas, USA)
Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art – University of Salford (Manchester, UK)
White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection (Sydney, Australia)
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