Changhua

Taiwan

Taipei

Taiwan

1979

BA Department of Fine Arts

Chinese Culture University

1985

Resigned

Artist Introduction The history of Taiwan is replete with numerous cultural interactions, the constant interplay of which has resulted in the evolution of unique cultural DNA. Over many years, Yang Mao-lin has consistently used art as a vehicle to express his opinions on a wide range of issues, from culture and environment to society, politics and history. Yang uses painting, digital works, installations and sculpture to voice ideas that go beyond openness and harmony. He also employs well developed methods to showcase rarely seen Taiwanese cultural traits and present alternative responses and reflections through art. Creative History Painting (1984-2002) If we look at the early paintings of Yang Mao-lin, it is clear that the most important objective of “creating art” for him as an artist has been to facilitate public participation and speak to as wide an audience as possible. In the 1980s, Yang’s works Mythology, Graphic Hero and Behavior of Game Playing detailed the eruption of violent conflict in the space between land and tradition, industry and modernization. In the 1990s, he created the Made in Taiwan series of works; Politics used simple yet explosive and frantic expressive methods to focus on socio-political issues in modern Taiwan; History juxtaposed and overlapped images to examine Taiwanese history; and Culture represented a change in direction in which the artist borrowed “popular” manga/anime and folk customs to detail the uniqueness of Taiwanese culture and its evolution from overlapping layers of cultural colonization. Three Dimensional Sculptures, Multimedia (2002-today) In 2002, Yang Mao-lin’s Ceremonies Before Rewarding ─ Inviting the Immortals III solo exhibition was his first effort at sculpture after 20 years of painting. Although the works in this period lacked the strong critical awareness that informed much of Yang’s earlier art, they were also much more innocent and romantic. In The Pure Land of Maha, The Wonderland in Saha World of Maha and A Story About Affection, he combined manga characters with Buddha thereby deifying them. However, this approach was not merely an extremely original way to showcase the diversity of opening in modern Taiwanese society it was also imbued with the artist’s own desires, spiritual satisfaction and redemption. In 2009, Kill Alice represented a gradual movement away from a focus on external events in favor of a more inward looking and introspective exploration in the work of Yang Mao-lin. This is particularly evident in the way the artist deals with detail, his methodology and focus in The Quest for Mandala ─ Wanderers of the Abyssal Darkness (2015), which is clearly more inward-looking and refined. In addition, the deification and central role played by manga/anime characters has also been gradually reduced, with the diverse internal world and character of the artist now noted through references to deep sea fish, goldfish and tropical fish.

1982

Resigned

Initiator of 101 Modern Art Group