YANG Jian
Through his concern for the most insignificant subjects and the pertinence of his narrative framework, not a moment goes by where Yang Jian doesn’t use his artistic creation to stir up habitual experiences and the restrictions and stipulations imposed on daily life. At face value, this kind of joking and teasing – both theatrical and humorous at the same time – is diametrically opposed to a great many previous performance methods that related explicitly to Realpolitik. Oftentimes the artist constructs grotesqueness to reach the shore opposite to that of the truth. Either that or he uses randomness and coincidence to unfurl a vigorous, technical rhetoric, whereby he uncovers a logical revolt hidden beneath everyday appearances.
At first glance, Yang Jian’s artistic practice seems oriented towards a kind of “technical” rhetoric with regards to emotions or phenomena, when in actual fact it possesses a melancholic, novel-like core, as well as a montage-like attitude that is revealed when his work deals with specific incidents. His artistic output includes video, installations and performance, among other domains.
Yang Jian (b. 1982, Fujian Province, China) received his MA from the School of Fine Arts, Xiamen University in 2007. From 2009 to 2010, Yang Jian was admitted to the international residency program at the Dutch Royal Academy of Fine Arts (RABK). In 2010 he was awarded funding by the Dutch Niemeijer Fonds Foundation. In 2015, he won the Special Jury Prize of the Third “Huayu Youth Award” at Art-Sanya, China. Recent solo exhibitions include The Times Impossible to Encounter; The Gaze from a Composite Leviathan, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China (2018); General Image, SNAP, Shanghai, China (2017); Yang Jian: Constructing Ruins, Taikang Space, Beijing, China (2017); The Beginning of Infinity, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, China (2016); World Monitor: Doomsday has begun, yet nothing bad has happened, A307, Beijing, China (2016). Recent group exhibitions include Noire Lumière, HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), Shanghai, China (2020); A Composite Leviathan, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, USA (2019); Three Rooms: Edge of Now, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany (2019)&Chronus Art Center, Shanghai, China (2018-2019)&Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, South Korea (2018); Social Emotion, Cc Foundation & Art Centre, Shanghai, China (2017); Turning Point: Contemporary Art in China Since 2000, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2017). Yang Jian currently lives and works in Beijing and Nanjing, China.
SELECTED WORKS
EXHIBITIONS
Geyser
05.26, 2023 – 07.07, 2023
Caochangdi
The Times Impossible to Encounter; The Gaze from a Composite Leviathan
10.27 – 12.7, 2018
Caochangdi
THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY
4.23 – 5.29, 2016
Caochangdi
ARE WE MORE STUPID THAN BEFORE?
11.23, 2013 – 1.30, 2014
Caochangdi
SIMPLE MECHANICAL
9.1 – 11.11, 2012
Caochangdi
NEWS
2021 OCAT Biennale “Boomerang”
OCAT Shenzhen
2021.12.19 – 2022.5.22
El Lisstzky’s Rooms
Surplus Space
2020.11.3 – 12.30
Étude
Aranya Art Center
2020.5.23 – 8.23
A Composite Leviathan
Luhring Augustine Bushwick
2019.10.11 – 12.21
Yang Jian: A Big Metaphor
Microneme Space
2019.5.12 – 6.11
8102: On Reality
OCAT Shanghai
2018.12.29 – 2019.3.10
The 6th Guangzhou Triennial 2018: As We May Think：Feedforward
Guangdong Museum of Art
2018.12.21 – 2019.3.10
Flowing Books—Temporality: OCAT Nanjing Qixia Public Art Project 2018
OCAT Nanjing
2018.11.6 – 2020.3.10
Edge of Now
Nam June Paik Art Center
2018.7.12 – 9.16
Social Emotion
Cc Foundation & Art Centre
2017.6.10 – 8.27
Between Language and Infinity
Ran Dian
2016.6.8
杨健“无穷的开始”：都市建筑的时空变异
瑞象馆
2016.6.7
杨健 观念的手感
ARTYOO
2016.4.25
Art Sanya: Scenarios of Time
Art Sanya
2015.12.17 – 2016.3.17
戴卓群：杨健是一个将批判和抵抗日常化的艺术家
Art Bank
2014.12.18
何翔宇、杨健：反观“自我”与现代文明
ARTCO
2012.12.7
Mechanism, Starting Now
Art Bank
2012.10.26
YANG JIAN Unclaimed Objects
LEAP
2012.10.19
空间冲突的有限性
ORIENTAL ART MASTER
2012.10.17
YANG JIAN：简单机械
ARTFORUM
2012.9.21
年轻人的机锋 空白空间双个展
Hi Art
2012.9.12
Things Lost and Found
ARTslant
2012.6.14