Yang Shaobin
Yang Shaobin | China b.1963 | X – Blind Spot No. 18 2008 | Fibreglass | 250 x 90 x 80cm | Image courtesy: The artist and Long March Space, Beijing
b. 1963 Tangshan, Hebei Province, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China
Yang Shaobin’s paintings are known for their refined composition, rich narrative and incisive commentary on the changing social landscape of China. The personal experience of growing up in a coal-mining town in rural China has informed his recent series of paintings and sculptures, entitled ‘X–Blind Spot’. Since 2004, he has been visiting the coalmining districts in Hebei Province, Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, and has documented the situation of coalmining communities. Coal, cheap and readily available, is the fuel of choice in China, and provides most of its energy. In observing the day-to-day experiences of China’s open-cut coalminers, Yang Shaobin examines the working conditions and social effects that are related to the production of coal in China, and considers the tensions between the individual and the collective in China’s changing economy.
Exhibitions (solo): Long March Space, Beijing, China, 2008; Alexander Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2007. Exhibitions (group): ‘The Real Thing’, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2007; 48th Biennale of Venice, Italy, 1999.
Video
View Yang Shaobin’s artist talk from the APT6 Opening weekend (part 1 of 2) (part 2 of 2)
