HUANG YULONG

He works in a variety of media, mixing traditional ceramic porcelain or bronze with crystals. To him, the hip-hop culture he often portrays, the hoodies and bling, is a state of being and a way of life, not merely a foreign culture appropriated by young Chinese. To him, hip-hop culture is “characterized by energy, power, purity, sexuality, freedom, courage. But this is also an urban story full of crying and blood.”

Huang is best known for his sculptures of Buddhas in hoodies, displaying a convergence of East and West, tradition and contemporary. These paradoxical images challenge the serenity of the traditional Chinese Buddha image, updating and urbanizing it to reflect China’s rapid transition over the last few decades from a rural society to a mostly urban one. Huang’s work is young, fresh, and fun, a physical portrayal of the cultural mash-ups in contemporary Chinese society.