Join us for an enlightening evening with a conversation between acclaimed artist Yang Yongliang and Chinese visual culture scholar Alfreda Murck. They will delve into the inspirations and techniques behind Yang’s innovative works. Yang is renowned for his digital collages that blend the aesthetic principles of traditional Chinese shan shui (mountain-water) paintings with contemporary themes, creating visually stunning landscapes that reflect on modern societal issues.
This event is part of our ongoing exhibition, Shan Shui Reboot: Re-envisioning Landscape for a Changing World, which showcases a new generation of artists reinterpreting traditional Chinese landscape painting in response to global changes. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insight into Yongliang’s artistic process and explore how traditional art forms can offer a unique lens on contemporary life.
Light refreshment will be served.
Schedule
5:30 – 6:00 PM | Check-in |
6:00 – 6:30 PM | Conversation between Yang Yongliang and Alfreda Murck |
6:30 – 7:00 PM | Chat with the Artist |
This program is made possible through the support of the Chinese International Education Foundation, and generous supporters of China Institute in America.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
China Institute in America’s cultural programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Born in 1980 in Old Town Jiading, Shanghai, Yang Yongliang studied Chinese painting since childhood. In the early 2000s, he graduated from Shanghai Institute of Design of China Academy of Art and started his experiments in multidisciplinary art. Yang currently lives and works in New York and Shanghai. Yang’s digital Chinese landscapes have redefined traditional landscape paintings, featuring a massive amount of urban images reconstructed, and recomposed. Poetic and quaint as it appears to be when seen from a distance, it unfolds a fable of modern civilization if one takes a closer look. His works have been exhibited internationally and collected by public institutions worldwide, including Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the British Museum in London, Paris Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
An independent scholar of Chinese visual culture, Freda lived in Taipei and Beijing from 1991 to 2013. She teaches part-time at Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology. Her publications include Poetry and Painting in Song China: The Subtle Art of Dissent (Harvard Asia Center 2000), “Golden Mangoes –– The Life Cycle of a Cultural Revolution Symbol,” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 57 (2007), and Cui Bai’s ’Magpies and Hare’ as a Commentary on Marriage, Eunuchs, and Self-awareness” (Journal of Song Yuan Studies vol. 49, 2020). Before living in Asia, Freda was Associate Curator of Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum. She received a PhD from Princeton University.