“You could say that I’m just an artist who paints with a camera.”
— Yang Fudong
Born 1971 in Beijing, Yang Fudong is widely respected as one of the most influential Chinese artists working today. Characterised by an atemporal and dreamlike quality, his works encompass a range of media from painting to film and photography. Having been traditionally trained as a painter at the China Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou, the artist’s practice took a noticeable shift in the late 1990s. It was during this period when Yang began to develop his unique visual language, whereby producing a significant body of works mainly in film, installation, and photography.
Hailing from Yang Fudong’s most iconic series of photographs, International Hotel No. 11 is emblematic of the artist’s celebrated practice. Captured timelessly in black and white film, the poised female figure in the present work seems to be suspended in time and lost in her thoughts. Drawing reference from images of poolside swimmers during competitions and posters of ‘modern’ women of the 1930s, the artist attempts to portray the complex imagery of young women in contemporary and past China. This can be further interpreted as a positive depiction of the ‘modern’ woman as a figure of progressiveness, cultural advancement and urban sophistication.
In 2024, Yang Fudong will be presenting his most comprehensive institutional exhibition to date and his first in Beijing at the UCCA Beijing. The artist has held solo exhibitions at ShanghART, Shanghai, 2020; Long Museum, Shanghai, 2018; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, 2015; Kunsthalle Zürich, 2013; and Kunsthalle Wien in 2005.