Yang Jin Long

Seasons of Love

January 24, 2009 through February 28, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 24, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm

Deborah Colton Gallery is pleased to present, Seasons of Love by artist Yang Jin Long. This is Yang’s second solo at the Deborah Colton Gallery, his first being in 2007. Seasons of Love opens Saturday, January 24, 2009 with a reception for the artist 6:00 to 9:00 pm.

China began to expand its economic boundaries when Hong Kong was returned from British sovereignty in 1997, thus fostering widespread technological growth. In turn, contemporary Chinese art has reflected not just industrial development but the permeation of Western ideology. Yang’s compositions reflect this change by their saturation of symbolic imagery. Influenced by the formal structure in Chinese watercolors and calligraphy early in his academic career, Yang strived to develop a concept of working that would allow him to explore relationships between the living and the constructed. He laments the loss of traditional culture to the material existence of modern society, but understands, and proves in his paintings, that each can feed the other as a rich source of inspiration.

Yang Jin Long’s work evokes an Eastern spirit but calls upon Western forms wherein he often pairs hypermodern and fabled human figures with the detritus of pop culture iconography in surreal situations that defy immediate logic. One is as likely to find industrial debris of society as one is to observe exquisitely rendered figures in biomorphic, fluid forms displays as a psychological distortion of environment. His paintings are, in a sense, mental tableaux, documenting and expanding the notion of his experience.

While Yang hails from China, his themes are undeniably universal. The imagery of the works in Seasons of Love transcends cultures, breaking apart the mind’s eye into scattered fragments of representation that form a cohesive unit that is neither one civilization’s nor another’s. With a focus on color, cultural influences eroticism, and industry, Yang constructs tangible dreamscapes that blur the lines between the illusory and the genuine that exist in both the human imagination and the human condition. It is Yang’s technical and imaginative skill that allows these pictorial unions to succeed and speak to a broad audience on a more universal and spiritual level.

Seasons of Love marks an important occasion for Yang as he recently immigrated to the United States and has now been a resident of Houston for two years. Born in Zhenjiang, China, in 1960, Yang has been exhibiting internationally since 1998. After graduating from college in 1985, Yang accepted the position of Director of the Art Department at Zhenjiang University in his hometown. Yang’s major international solo exhibitions include the prestigious Pacific Cultural Foundation Art Center in Taipei, Taiwan. He has also received numerous awards in China and has works placed in many prominent collections. He is scheduled for a solo exhibition at The Crow Collection of Asian art in January – April of 2010.

Deborah Colton Gallery is founded on being an innovative showcase for ongoing presentation and promotion of strong historical and visionary contemporary artists world-wide, whose diverse practices include painting, works on paper, sculpture, video, photography, performance, conceptual future media and public space installations. The Gallery aspires to provide a forum through connecting Texas, national and international artist s to make positive change.