Yang Shaobin Biography

The fundamental anchor to Yang Shaobin's practice has been his awareness of a social consciousness. Early explorations engage with the corporeal experience of the individual in society and collective memory. Later work often enters into the political realm, where familiar faces of Western, Soviet and Middle Eastern leaders haunt the surface of canvases, and scenes from media reports are interspersed with Yang’s violent abstractions. In recent years he has turned his attention back to his roots. Born to a coal-mining family, Yang Shaobin is highly concerned with the state of the coal-mining industry in China. His work, in collaboration with the Long March Project, delves into the underground world of exploitation, labor conditions and the physical repercussions suffered by the coalmining community. Through a diverse range of media including oil painting, video and installation, Yang Shaobin shares his personal encounter with the viewer, revealing the juxtaposition of hardship and happiness, despondency and courage in the lives of these coal miners.

Yang Shaobin has exhibited extensively throughout the world, including Tate Liverpool, UK; Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany; Essl Museum – Kunst der Gegenwart, Klosterneuburg, Austria; Museum of Fine Arts Bern, Switzerland and the National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia. His work was included in the landmark exhibition of the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 and has also been included in several influential survey exhibitions of Chinese contemporary art, such as The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China and Mahjong – Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection.