Yang Xu
Yang Xu
Plus VAT if applicable
Walk with Rapunzel Tail 25042020, 2020
In collaboration with Victoria Cantons
Giclée print on Hahnemühle 305 gsm paper
40 x 30 cm
Edition of 10 + 2 AP
80 x 60 cm
Edition of 5 + 2 AP
About this work
During the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, Xu started taking her paintings to the parks around where she lives in Wandsworth, London. Her paintings had been craving some attention, and she was missing being able to interact with people in real life, having a “stage” for her artworks. The performance acted as a stress release for her own mental health, too, at a time when she was worried about her family in China, and about her path as an artist, allowing her to dress up as the persona that she wished to be seen as, and that deep down she believes she is. For the artist, dressing up is the most positive thing she can do. She is using the elaborate and extravagant Rococo style as a stage on which to express her feelings.
About Yang Xu
Yang Xu (b. 1996, Shandong, China) is an artist living and working in London. She gained her MA Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2020, after completing her BA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Arts in 2018. Xu has exhibited her work extensively across the UK, Asia and Europe, with shows at spaces that include the Barbican Artists Group Trust project space (BAGT), London, Andrea Festa, Rome, Rea! Fair, Milan, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, and Saatchi Gallery, London.
Through her practice, Xu explores her personal interests and childhood fantasies, and notions of fetish and identity through painting, photography and mixed media. She interrogates history for clues as to the state of human nature. She considers the actions of people to be based on those of their predecessors: ‘Under a constructed identity we put masks on and act with free will.’
The performative nature of her work allows her to bring fantasies into reality. This manifests in the artist's work through the playful reworking of the Rococo period. With its privileging of power and female stereotypes, Rococo is buried under the weight of 20th-century moral disciplines. Xu resuscitates it, reinterpreting it for our contemporary moment. She attempts to uncover Rococo’s elaborate and extravagant painting style through playful brushstrokes. She paints these works layer by layer, smudging and touching the work into shape. All those different twists are used to feel the creaminess of the oil paint as it slides onto the textile, a process that she likens to applying icing to a cake. Rococo is such a maligned art form, but it is underpinned by idealisations, hopes and dreams that Xu feels we should have access to.
The emptiness in the mirror around the figure and dark background brings loneliness, tension and a sense of danger. The space is private, but inviting, and aims to engage with the audience. Her face is blurred, or covered by a mask. She could be anyone, or anyone could be her. This is the artist’s alter ego and portrays a ‘self’ as a skin for anyone to put on.
Education
2018-2020 Royal College of Art, London, MA Painting
2015-2018 Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, London, BA (1st Class Hons) Fine Art: Painting
2014-2015 CCW, UAL, London, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Residencies
2019 On the Mountain We Stay, Shandong, China. Supported by No Space
Organisation Membership
2020 UK-China Photography Association (Vice Chairman)
Prizes and Awards
2020 Contemporary Young Artist, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
2019 ArtWorks Open 2019, Prize winner, Barbican Arts Group Trust, ArtWorks Project Space, London
2019 Air Open 2019, Highly Commended award, Air Gallery, Manchester
2019 The Signature Art Prize, Shortlist, Bankside Hotel, London
2018 Clyde & Co Art Award, Shortlist, St Botolph Building, London
2017 Whitechapel Gallery First Thursday University Competition, Shortlist, London
2017 Olympus UAL Photography Award, Art Bermondsey Project Space, London
Solo Exhibitions
2020 100 Carat Diamond, ArtWorks Project Space, Barbican Arts Group Trust, London
2019 Present but In and Out of Focus, Central Saint Martins, London (Performance)
2017 An Empty Room, Deyin Hardware Head Office, ZiBo, ShanDong, China
2017 She is Me as Myself, Yishu Gallery, ChangZhou, China
2016 Contemporary Painting,City Milu Space, ChangZhou, China
Collaborations
2019 I Always Believed Unicorns are Real 14102019, collaboration with Wells Projects, London
2019 Contribution to Dr. Annie Xu’s PHD research
2017 Generation Exchange, in collaboration with Dr. Susanna Round, Wimbledon Space
2017 Imaging Technologies, Artist-collaboration with Painting Research at Wimbledon College of Arts, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London
2016 Blood Pressure,The Archive Room, Wimbledon College of Arts, London
2016 What Happens to Us, Wimbledon Space, Wimbledon College of Arts, London
2016 Here She Comes, Royal Festival Hall, London (performance in collaboration with Monster Chetwynd)
Group Exhibitions
2020 Rea! Fair, Milan, Italy
2020 Softer Softest, Andrea Festa Fine Art, Rome, Italy
2020 Twenty Twenty Women, www.artistellar.com
2020 A Rudimentary Education, Art Lacuna, London
2020 Wintergreen Boxwood, No 20 Arts, London
2020 London Grads Now, Saatchi Gallery, London
2020 RCA/Slade Graduation show, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
2020 Final, not Over, Unit 1 Gallery, London
2020 Body Soul and Time, online exhibition, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-xijjC5pvH_8usNoceU_BA
2020 Be water, my friend, online exhibition, www.grapevine.earth/water
2019 Little Originals, Dock Street Studios, Dundee, Scotland
2019 ArtWork Open 2019, ArtWorks Project Space, London
2019 Beautiful China, Beautiful World, Golden Era of China-UK, The Palace of Westminster, London
2019 Air Open 2019, Air Gallery, Manchester
2019 Where We Once Were Someone, A Yngspc Online Exhibition, Online, Instagram
2019 Celebration, Roost Studios and Art Gallery, NYC, United States
2018 Beijing Summer Show, NL Gallery, Beijing, China
2018 Chain, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, China
2018 Neulinge, The Crypt Gallery, London
2018 HuangYan, Chelsea Triangle Space, Chelsea College of arts, London
2017 Bring Me My Cloak, LVP House, North Acton, London, United Kingdom
2017 Xu Yang, Ghost Space, Wimbledon Library, Wimbledon college of art, London
2017 Unicorn, Wimbledon Library Space, London.
2017 The Currents of Identity, The Crypt Gallery, London. Curated: Dr. Annie Xu, Yang Xu
2017 Infinite Possibility, Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green Rd, London
2017 To be continued... , North China University of Science and Technology, Hebei Province, China
2017 Remarquable, Anaglifos Art Gallery, Carrer d’en Monec, Barcelona, Spain
2017 Materiality in Painting, 26 Spaces, Wimbledon College of Arts, Wimbledon, London
2017 One Year Anniversary Art Fair, Deptford Does Art, The Brookmill, London
2016 Exhibit Here’s Art Maze, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse, London
2016 Bridge–Crossing & Conversation, Totem Il Canale Gallery, Venice, Italy
2016 Bad Art is a Journey, 1933 Ancient Slaughterhouse, ShangHai, China
2016 Line of Edge, Art in Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Capsticks Exhibition, Selected from WCA Students, London
2016 Moment, Coningsby Gallery, London
Talks and Conversations
2019 In Conversation: Present but In and Out of Focus with Chen Junyao, Wang Lianyi, Central Saint Martins, London
Press and Media
2020 Exibart, Sei artisti sul Lungotevere, per la nuova Andrea Festa Fine Art, 07112020
Art She Says Magazine, REA! Art Fair: A New Female-Led Fair for Emerging Artists 2nd Nov
Elephant Magazine, These Are the Artists You Need to Know Right Now 03102020
Islington Gazette, Art born out of extreme and uncertain environments, 30th Sep
Where is the Frame, 8 thriving artists at No. 20 Arts
Where is the Frame, Studio visit; Victoria Cantons and Xu Yang, 13th Sep 2020
The Sunday Times Culture, Art Review by Waldemar Januszczak, 13th Sep 2020, 12.1am
Fad Magazine, 3rd Sep 2020 By Paul Carey Kent, fadmagazine/2020/09/03 (feature incl. cover)
ARTCONNECT, Favorite Projects – 31 August – 6 September, www.artconnect.com/favorite-projects
Long Con Magazine, https://www.longconmag.com/, issue No.3, May 2020 (feature incl. cover)
Pulse UK, www.pulse-uk.org.uk, issue No.11 (691) 19th, March, 2020, pp.6-7, 100 Carat Diamond
Pulse UK, www.pulse-uk.org.uk, issue No.10 (691) 12th, March, 2020, pp.8, 100 Carat Diamond
2019 No Space WeChat Official, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ntMB721QMeDRg1OJq1jw-Q , 2019-08-30