“Dream Transformation: Li Yang’s Art”, the fifth exhibition of the first phase of “Expand & Curate –Young Experiment Project Space”, opened at 2C Gallery of CAFA Art Museum at 2 pm on September 18. This exhibition is a special exhibition featuring the works of Li Yang, associate professor of the Department of Mural Painting of CAFA, with Shao Yiyang, associate professor of the School of Humanities of CAFA, and Shao Yan, professor of the School of Humanities of CAFA, as academic advisors, and Ji Yujie, design director of CAFA Art Museum and associate researcher, as the curator.
Taking genealogy and samples as the logic of its spatial narrative, this exhibition combs and presents the artist’s thirty-three years of artistic exploration and creation centered on dreams, including 108 pieces/groups of works such as oil paintings, mural paintings, digital art, installations, graphic design, social performance art, artist diaries and manuscripts. Through a light and dynamic visual design, it constructs a surrealistic picture in which time and space are intertwined, reality and reality are blended, and romance and logic coexist.
Li Yang is a research-oriented artist, which can be found in his in-depth analysis of dreams and his study of dreams as a possible method of artistic creation. He uses multiple ways of artistic expression to explore the universal problems of human existence –the complex relationship and mutual effect between dream and psychology, dream and personal subconscious, dream and social subconscious, and dream and creativity, to achieve the purpose of artistic healing by transforming people with dreams. In this process, special attention is paid to the emotional contagion brought by artistic languages such as colors, brush strokes and texture. In the shaping of the narrative, the excellent basic modeling skills of the artist make the composition of the picture vivid and free, reveling a sense of ease.
As a young artist and art educator trained by the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Li Yang developed a distinctive and individual artist character that benefited from the art academy’s profound artistic background, outstanding academic tradition and open innovation atmosphere. On the one hand, he pays attention to "specialization and refinement", concentrates on "dreams" in his creation, and continuously carries out art experiments and research with a broad vision, improving himself day by day. On the other hand, his works are “spiritual and fresh”, as he pursues expressive and surreal aesthetic tastes, being free, clever and naive in artistic languages and forms, with dramatic image narrative. He is good at experimenting with new media and new ideas, constantly promoting his art to open up new patterns. His artistic creation is more like a process of completion, that is, a process of researching and excavating individual and personal dreams, and constantly connecting them to the expression and exploration of the collective dream of the whole era, history, society and even human issues. Only with full respect and understanding of individual experience, can we better learn and express the collective spirit, which fully embodies the social and humanistic nature of art
Li Yang
Li Yang is an artist, dream worker, associate professor and master supervisor of the Department of Mural Painting of CAFA, and Doctor of Art Theory, currently living and working in Beijing. His work focuses on the integration of artistic, psychological, medical and sociological perspectives of dream work, and the possibility of acquiring new social life tools from the language of dreams.
Solo exhibition includes: “Li Yang Hua Meng: Crypto Art Exhibition”, SGA Gallery, Shanghai (2021); “Dream Catcher: A Field Work about Dream”, Space Station, Beijing (2020); “Li Yang: Unicorn –Institute of Dream”, Unicorn Center for Art, Beijing (2015), “Realistic Self-Healed–Hiding the Body”, Reality Space, Beijing (2010), “Si Wu Xie (Aboveboard) - Li Yang’s Work Exhibition”, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (2007); “Wake Up”, Long March Space, Beijing (2006), etc.
Group Exhibitions & Social Projects: “Night Dimension: The Night of the Gifts)”, The Former Site of Lester Institute of Technical Education, Shanghai (2023); “Asian Digital Art Exhibition: Spaceship Earth”, Times Art Museum, Beijing (2022); “Sandbox System: Three Curing Samples”, Online Exhibition, Cryptovoxels, Raiden INST (2022); “Super Fusion: Chengdu Biennale”, Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu (2021); “The Way of Craft: The First Suzhou Craft Biennale”, Suzhou (2021); “Do Not Black Out”, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2021); “Yixi –The 697th Speaker: Drawing Dreams”, Wanxiang Theatre, Shenzhen (2019); “Paintings of One Hundred Years – Mural Paintings of CAFA’s History”, Wangjing Campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2017); “CAFAM Biennale: Negotiating Space”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2016); “Up-Youth—China Young Artists Exhibition”, Times Art Museum, Beijing (2014, 2015); “The 6th Chengdu Biennale”, MOCA, Chengdu (2013); Shaping – “Exhibition for the Teachers from CAFA”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2010); “CAFA’s Sketch 60 Years”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2009); “New Curator Project—The Story of Hair”, TS1 Contemporary Art Center, Beijing (2006), “The Intangible Shape”, January Contemporary Art Gallery, Beijing (2006), “Talk Ten+Ten—Contemporary Art Exhibition”, ZENDAI Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2006); “Long March – Yan’an Project”, Long March Space, Beijing (2006); Involved in the Production: The 51st Venice Biennale - Virgin Garden: Emerging, creating a painting for Wang Qiheng’s “Geomancy of Venice Biennale”, the Pavilion of China, Venice, Italy (2005); “The First Young Artist Exhibition”, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2003).
Awards: Won the first prize of the “CAFA Graduation Creative Exhibition 2001”, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2001); won the “Nokia ‘I See the Future’ Art Grand Prize”, Contemporary Art Museum, Beijing (1999); Participated in the “Exhibition of Posters to Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of CAFA” and won the first prize, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (1998); etc.
Published Works & Interviews: “Journal of Psychology”, “Exploration of the Heart”, “City Pictorial”, “Chinese Elites”, “Beijing Youth Weekly”, “Art Research”, “Art Observation”, “Fine Arts”, “New Weekly”, “Collection (international edition)”, “Chinese Art”, “Chinese National Geography”, “Bo Wu”, etc.
Teaching Courses: “Analysis and Creation of Surrealist Art”, “Holistic Sketch”, “Mysterious Art Class”, etc.
