Yang Jiechang(杨诘苍）

Yang Jiechang, born in 1956 in Foshan, Guangdong Province

Living and working between Paris and Heildelberg since 1988

Yang Jiechang is an artist who lives and works in Paris, France, and Heidelberg, Germany.

In the 1970s, Yang studied at the Foshan Folk Art Research Institute, and in 1978, he entered the Chinese Painting Department at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). After graduating, he became a teacher at GAFA, and during the mid-1980s, he studied Zen Buddhism and Taoism. Simultaneously he became active in the contemporary art scene in China which was then undergoing rapid development. One of his aims is to promote autonomous regional and marginal expression.

Yang Jiechang gained international recognition through the exhibition of his large monochrome ink paintings, severe in their abstraction and spirituality. Nevertheless, his work comprises a variety of media: painting, video, installation, and interventions.

In 1989, Yang was invited to participate in the exhibition Magicians of the Earth in Paris. He then stayed in Europe, similarly to other artists such as Huang Yong Ping.

Yang continues to work as an artist and exhibits widely. Selected exhibitions include the Avant-Garde show (1989, National Gallery Beijing), Venice Biennale (2003), the second Guangzhou Triennial (2005), the Liverpool Biennial (UK, 2006) and the Istanbul Biennial (2007)