Marian Goodman Gallery is pleased to continue our artist-centric newsletter IN FOCUS, where we delve deeply into one artist on the MGG roster at a time. Aiming to show a fuller picture of the breadth of our artists' careers, we will feature our favorite stories, podcasts, interviews, artists’ writings and videos from the archive, as well as new and upcoming projects.

Yang Fudong (b. 1971, Beijing, China) currently lives and works in Shanghai. After receiving a BFA in oil painting from the Academy of Fine Art, Hangzhou, in 1995, Yang went on to expand his practice, developing a significant body of work mainly in film, film installation, photography, and, more recently, painting. Yang’s visual language has always been enveloped in a dream-like mystery, blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy. His characters, often silent and disembodied, usually move according to choreographed gestures, transporting the viewer into aesthetically perfect environments—(for instance, the opulent, imperial court of the Song Dynasty). For Yang, the process of making a film should allow for experimentation. For this reason, Yang is considered one of China’s most important contemporary artists.

Today, follow along as we explore the many levels of Yang Fudong’s practice.

A 2015 interview with Yang by Li Zhenhua for the inaugural issue of Kaleidoscope Asia. They discuss Yang’s photographic works, such as The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories (1999), among others. In Yang’s view, photography encompasses both photographs and film, prompting us to think about the intersections between the two.

Image: Yang Fudong, Dawn Breaking — A Museum Film Project, Day 12, 2018