Yang Shu's paintings reference the human body, industrial society, environmental issues, and politics. The Chinese artist's works span from blots of bubble gum-pink paint over a white canvas to political comments captioning his cut-out, satirical images. He is regarded as an early pioneer of Chinese experimental art.
Read MoreYang Shu was born in Chongqing, China, and received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in oil painting from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1985 and 1988. Yang Shu has worked as an independent curator since 1999, taught art history at North China University of Technology's Art & Design Academy in Beijing from 2000 to 2003, and served as executive editor of the Chinese contemporary art magazine Next Wave in 2001.
Since the mid-1980s, the Chinese artist has experimented with abstract expressionism, with earlier works evoking influences from German expressionists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Max Beckmann. Despite the fact that his more recent paintings contain elements of graffiti, Yang Shu rejects the label 'graffiti art' and prefers to refer to his artistic method as a process of refining oneself.
Painting is more than a wall decoration for Yang Shu. It is a way to comprehend and explain the human psyche, which oscillates between happiness and misery. It is global, humorous, and philosophical, rather than a means of escaping reality, which implies weakness and compromised values. A tour guide stands beside a riverside in Untitled No.6 (2014), wearing traditional Chinese attire under a pink apron. Behind her, a carved-out silhouette washes their hands in the river. Yang Shu drags his brush around both figures, creating dark horizontal lines and splattering vivid paint flecks across the painting before writing 'Fuck Tourist' above the tour guide's head.
Colours are both welcoming and intriguing to Yang Shu. As he splits the canvas into two regions for WT 2017 No.5 (2017), the artist outlines his understanding of colour palettes. Northwards, he delineates the space with vertical blocks of pastel colours. Southwards, he tilts his brush and creates M-shaped lines in vibrant hues that resemble birds in the sky. Yang Shu regards colours as secular and perceptual, citing Yves Klein's absolute use of colour in his singular blue works.
The majority of Yang Shu's paintings are titled with numbers, indicating his unscripted creative process. The artist does not devote a lot of time to his work. He believes that the more time he invests into his painting, the more likely he is to lose sight of why he started it in the first place. In 2018 No.11 2018 11号 (2018), Yang Shu dresses the canvas in a kaleidoscope of neon and murky colours, forming no singular imagery. The abstract work harkens back to his accidental approach to painting, as well as his attempt to depict chaos in a person's mind.
Yang Shu's exhibitions include W.T.Y. — Yang Shu Solo Exhibitions, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2018); THE DARK SIDE OF HEART, ArtDeop Space, Beijing; Rain & Shining, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2014); Yang Shu Paper Works, A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu (2011); Yang Shu Works, Art Alliance, Zurich (2011); I don't like you, Re-C Art Space, Chengdu (2010); Snake, Brain Mask, TM Project Gallery, Geneva (2009); Satyagraha, AHVA Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto (2009); Unknown Pleasures — Works of Yang Shu, Z-art Center, Shanghai (2008); My Apple — Works Exhibition of Yang Shu, Shanghai Museum of Art (2007); and Piece of Life, A&A Phoenix, Hong Kong (2001).
On Ocula, Yang Shu is represented by A Thousand Plateaus Art Space.
Matthew Burgos | Ocula | 2021
