1981 Born in Taipei , Taiwan
2006 National Taiwan Art University, BA of Fine Art
Work in Taiwan & Hong Kong
Wang Chien-Yang is a Taiwanese visual and installation artist, also painter and photographer. Yang’s series of works, titled “ HOUSE”, invokes the otaku concept of “house,” which points to the residence that people take shelter in for their everyday lives and expresses the primal instinct of nesting. “HOUSE” represents a world phenomenon of our young generation in which the virtual world has invaded into every house through the Internet; on the other way round this technology also allow an infinite extension of imagination from the inside out. Yang turns house into a fantasy stage to express his subconsciousness.
He constructs the theatrical gaming scene with numerous toys and tools. Nakedness is a symbol of his works, represents striping an individual back to a primal and natural state, adding sense of irrealism into “HOUSE”. He also combines the elements of animation and sweetness to presents his characters in an exaggerated “manga” style. Each work resembles a stop-motion manga that coupling with the theatrical sets to creates a youthful, playful sense of being. The joyful sweetness and illusionary set design aims to enable the audience to escape the reality, and enter into a surreal experience in a fantasy realm.
Yang’s recent “MANGA” series is evolved from the concept of House, expressing his concern on the recent social issue and phenomenon, meanwhile also allow him to detach temporarily from the real world. Still within a HOUSE, the simplest unit of a society, he turns those social issues into a big comics background, every individual inside the work is painted in the same tone so as to integrate into his “MANGA” world.
So for this exhibition, Yang shows three works of his “ Manga” series:
“Candy Battle” took place inside the dessert-making factory, every tiny dessert is so attractive but what the ingredients are under pretty coverage; how people can fight against those dishonest manufacturers who only concerned cutting down cost. “Running Monsters” refers to infinite desires; people want so much and are kept chased by their desires. “ Roaming around Subsciousness” refers to an individual getting lost inside a prosperous city; city gets blue, people get blue; we become assimilated and lose ourselves.
Yang first came to light through Takashi Murakami GEISAI Taiwan in 2009, in which he was recognized with the Seiichi Kamei Personal Award, and then was awarded with golden price in subsequent GEISAI Taiwan 2010. His HOUSE series was then invited for exhibitions widely, including “Stay real dream/Huashan in 2011, Future Pass/Today Art Museum of Beijing in 2012, Love Love Animamix Biennale/Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2013, Taiwan Biennial/National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art of Taichung in 2014, International Animation/MOCA Yinchuan and Dance with the Museum Collection/Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 2016. Meanwhile he also held solo and joint exhibitions in Los Angelos, London, Tokyo, Melbourne, Beijing, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korean and Singapore. He continues to seek international exposure and venture to bring his HOUSE to an ever-wider audience.
Wang Chien Yang