YANG YONGLIANG
| June 30, 2011 | ART | Posted by James Watkins |
Trained in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, artist Yang Yongliang is pushing the boundaries of photography and landscape art with his photo-collage fusions.
Whilst navigating his website might be difficult for those of us who don’t read Chinese, Yang Yongliang’s artwork is undeniably amazing and he communicates his messages with or without google translate.
Utilising photography as the key element of his artistic works, Yang Yongliang creates artworks that require a double take to fully appreciate. At first glance nothing seems out of the ordinary in his ethereal landscapes, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that these are not just beautiful images of nature, but a harsh social commentary on the quickly evolving technological world and the rapid conquest of cities over nature.
Using a deft subtlety, Yongliang creates his photo-collage landscapes with an amazing impact. Creating beautiful photorealistic environments, using a collection of photographs of skyscrapers and other manmade structures, his stark juxtaposition of cities vs nature is a brilliantly clever approach to the often cliché artistic interpretation of nature vs technology.
To check out more of Yang Yongliang’s amazing landscapes, as well as his installation pieces (including a giant cigarette made from his trademark photo-collage) visit his website yangyongliang.com .
Words: Darcy J
