Artist leaves past behind to get immersed in nature

“A Vast History,” a solo exhibition by artist Yin Zhaoyang, kicks off at the Long Museum West Bund tomorrow and runs through March 28.

As one of the biggest names in China’s contemporary art community, Yin belongs to the post-1970s representative art generation.

Yin’s exhibition features nearly 40 of his works, and they vary from oil paintings, ink on paper and print to sculptures.

Born in Nanyang, Henan Province, Yin majored in print-making at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 1996. But in the past decade, the Beijing-based artist has tried to depart from his “figure” and “figurative” series, which he is renowned for throughout China. Instead, Yin has immersed himself in nature: the sun, the moon, mountains and rivers.

In many of his new works, you can feel he’s been in a constant fight between a Western perception of the world and an oriental philosophy of expression — trying to achieve harmony.

At the age of 50, Yin believes fate is a predetermined course of events beyond human control. So he paints landscapes of mountains, rocks, trees and creatures to image a vast picture of human history — a compliment of accumulated knowledge and experiences, fearless creative experimentation and deeply-seated existential anxiety, while holding clues purposefully buried for the future.

The highlight of the exhibition goes to a group of monumental works, each of which runs at least 7 meters long. “A Polar Day,” measuring 300 centimeters by 1,100 centimeters, is completed last year during the coronavirus lockdown. This eponymous work is the artist’s latest experiment in juxtaposing group portraits and landscapes.

Dates: Through March 28 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5:30pm

Venue: Long Museum West Bund

Address: 3398 Longteng Avenue