Yang Shaobin 杨少斌

Yang Shaobin is renowned for his red-coloured portraits of grisly, eerie, deformed, or sinister creatures. His earlier works from the 1990s were mainly in the style of ‘Realism’, comprising groups of uniformed men who were fighting amongst each other in an explicit display of aggression and violence. Since 1998, his style began to depart from a realistic portrayal of the world around him to a more abstract approach to figurative art, focusing on the process of and creating, rather than just the final outcome. He gained worldwide attention with his Red Violence series, red-hued oil portraits that were exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1999. These works focus on the depressing banality and brutality of the times in , showing the artist’s reflections and critical thinking about the existing social order, the situation of the common people and the human spirit, as well as reflecting on the cultural discourse prevalent at that time. In this series Yang Shaobin’s artistic language, technical skill, and thematic vision took full form. The artist’s intention is for the viewer to feel pain in his work. He uses wide paintbrushes to paint with speed and agility, making use of the unbridled fluidity of diluted oil paint. The contrasting effect of red and white colours is used to display the tension of confrontation.

Before he was an artist, Yang Shaobin was a police officer in the Public Security Bureau. His artworks illustrate the artist’s vision of humanity and the correlative relationships between compassion, humanitarianism, and brutal violence, an understanding certainly influenced by the experiences of his former career. The violence explored in his works may originate from personal experience or from reflections on human society and their living environment. Yang Shaobin through his art incites re- examination and reflection on modern society and human relationships. His more recent works use colours other than red and white, incorporating colour gradation, using a strong narrative style to create a cinematic atmosphere. The audience is brought to engage in, albeit from a distance, such abrupt scenes. The shifting international climate and outbreak of warfare in the mid-2000s made the artist realise that violence does not only exist as physical attacks, but also in the form of monopolisation and exploitation on an ideological and intellectual level, what he refers to as ‘soft violence’. The creative process taken by Yang Shaobin allows for a universal understanding of chaos and violence innate in human nature.

Yang Shaobin was born in 1963 in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Polytechnic University, Hebei, in 1983. In 1991, he moved to the now famous artist village Yuanmingyuan, in , which also included the studios of and . He currently lives and works in Beijing. In 2000, he won the Prize for Contemporary (CCAA). Yang Shaobin participated in the 8+8-1: Selected by 15 Contemporary Artists show and project, which was created by Schoeni Art Gallery. In 1994, the gallery held his first exhibition, a two-man show alongside Yue Minjun, Faces behind the Bamboo Curtains, in . Since then, he has had numerous solo exhibitions in Beijing, , , Indonesia, and Sao Paulo, and over 60 group shows around the world.

Main Gallery: G/F, 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2869-8802 Branch Gallery: G/F, 27 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2542-3143 www.schoeniartgallery.com [email protected]