Born in 1970 in Henan Province, Yin Zhaoyang is a painter associated with the generation that followed the performance- and installation-oriented works of such artists as Zhang Huan and Xu Bing. Studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Yin developed an esthetic he calls a "collage of ideals"--a preference for powerful imagery based on such iconic presences as Mao, Tiananmen Square, and China's flag. Yin Zhaoyang’s work, while squarely situated within the context of contemporary Chinese painting, directly references the western tradition of the 1960’s and 1970’s – calling to mind the work of Gerhard Richter and Andy Warhol among others. Unlike the genre of political pop, gaudy art, or kitsch, within which the image of Mao is so often positioned, Yin Zhaoyang presents these powerful images within an atmosphere of memory and ambiguous reflection. Working from photographs of the living Mao, both official and unofficial, as well as from images of monuments erected in his honor, Yin Zhaoyang explores the distanced relevance of Mao Zedong to a society that has largely repudiated the policies of the Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution.
 
Among the “post-70s” artists, Yin Zhaoyang pioneered the artistic exploration on the subject of youthful sadness and began for the first time to project the self-imagery and emotional features of this generation onto the canvas. By situating grand narratives in humanistic concerns and reflection, his paintings offer a sentimental epitome of the plight suffered by youth of a particular era. In the 1990s, “Youth Cruelty” paintings by artists represented by Yin Zhaoyang, among others, have added to this category an experimental dimension and enhanced its depth of thinking in terms of narrativity, concept of image and aesthetic taste, constituting a major tendency in avant-garde painting of a decade.

1970            Born in Nanyang, Henan Province, China
Currently Works and Lives in Beijing, China
Educational Background
1996	Graduated from the Printing Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016	Panorama, Aura Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2015	Beyond Songshan, Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, China
2014	Beyond Landscape, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2013	Cold Mountain: The Solo Exhibition of Yin Zhaoyang, Long Museum, Shanghai, China
	Descend The Mountain, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China
	Descend The Mountain, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2011	Buda Terrenal,Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Madrid, Spain.
	Evolution, Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, China
	Fanatics, PAGE Gallery, Seoul, Korea
	Sunset in an Empty Mountain,Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
	Cave:Yin Zhaoyang Solo Exhibition, Aura Gallery, Beijing, China
	Pilgrim:Yin Zhaoyang Solo Exhibition,Aura Gallery, HongKong, China
2010	Island of Four Seasons, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China
	Façade, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China
	Master, Minsheng Art Center, Shanghai, China
	Façade, Shanghai Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Façade, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
2009	Enter the Temple and Buddha Appears, Shaolin Temple, Songshan Mountain, Henan Province, China
2008	Yin Zhaoyang 1997—2007, Minsheng Art Center, Shanghai, China
	Radiation, DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
	Yin Zhaoyang 1997—2007, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Focus, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China
2007	Yin Zhaoyang’s New Work, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
	Taipei Journal, Asia Art Center, Taiwan
	Time Lapse, Taikang Top Space, Beijing, China
	Yin Zhaoyang’s Recent Work, Aura Gallery, Hong Kong, China
	Passing By Mao Zedong,DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
	The Twilight of A Man, ARCO Madrid, Spain
2006	Passing By Mao Zedong, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand
	Passing By Mao Zedong, China Blue Gallery, Beijing, China
	Mythology, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Mythology, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, China
2005	Youth·Utopia, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand
	Public Space, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, USA
2004	Utopia, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
	Utopia vs. Young Story, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
2002	Mythology, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, China
2001	Mythology, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015	Garden Splendors: Chinese Contemporary Art, Suzhou Jinji Art Lake Museum, Suzhou, China
2014	Master Works on Paper, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2013	Passage to History: 20 Years of La Biennale di Venezia and Chinese Contemporary Art, Venice, Italy
	Dust and Glory: Three Media by Fang Lijun, Yin Zhaoyang Joint Exhibition, Eastation Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2012	New Style Invitation Opening Exhibition of Long Museum, Long museum, Shanghai, China
	Dust-a about west lake contemporary art exhibition, Venice, Italy
	Open Portrait, Shanghai, China
2011	Intimate Views, Lin &Lin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
	Ruthless Reality, White Stone Space, Shanghai, China
2010	Art Guangju, Guangju, Korea
	“One and One” Times Young Artists First Exhibition— Language, Times Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Image Consumption Times Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Community of Tastes, Chile Contemporary Art Museum, Chile
	The Upstairs Youth, Times Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Time Painting Farmers, Zhejiang Fine Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
2009	Glisten— New art in Depth, Hangzhou West lake Art Museum, Zhejiang, China
	Glisten— New art in Depth, Wall Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Beijing— Havana Chinese Contemporary Exhibition, National Art Museum of Cuba, Havana, Cuba/ Cuba Country Art Museum, Havana, Cuba
2008	Beijing— Athens Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, Greece
	Third Nanjing Triennial, RCM Art Museum, Nanjing, China
	Case Studies of Artists in Art History and Art Criticism, SZ Art Center of Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing, China
	Crouching Paper, Hidden Dragon, F2 Gallery, Beijing, China
	China 21st Century: Art Between Identity and Transformation, Palaexpo Delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
2007	Section— Chinese Image of Contemporary Art, Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing, China
	The Power of The Universe Exhibition of Frontier Contemporary Chinese Art,Asia Art Center, Beijing, China
	Black White Grey— A Conscious Cultural Stance, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Escape By Scheme Salvation From Traditional And Revolution Language, Square Gallery Of Contemporary Art, Nanjing, China
	New Terrestrial Reference— Opening of Art Museum 800, Art Museum 800, Shanghai, China
	Seven Plateaus— Contemporary Art, Ming Art Gallery, Beijing, China
	Korean & Chinese Modern Art Exhibition: Giants in Illusion, Seoul, Korea
	Chinese Contemporary SOCART, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2006	The Blossoming of Realism— The Oil Painting of Mainland China since 1978,Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
	Future and Fantasy— An Exhibition of Contemporary Art, The Metropolitan of Manila, Philippines
	Beyond Experience New China, Arario Gallery, Beijing, China
2005	Artists Born After The 70’s, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai, China
	Artists Born After The 70’s, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
	The Second Triennial of Chinese Art, Nanjing Museum, China
	Mahjong— Sigg Collection Exhibition, Switzerland
2003	Image About Images, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2002	The Youth Cruelty Painting, DDM Art Warehouse, Shanghai, China
	The Youth Cruelty Painting, Yanhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2001	First Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu, China
1999	Sharp New Sights, Beijing International Art Museum, Beijing, China