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Yang Na

Born 1983, Chongqing, Sichuan Province. Lives and works in Beijing.

Yang Na studied at the subsidiary high school of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (1998-2002). She studied oil painting at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2002-06) and received a Master of Arts from the same institution in 2010.

Pimple, 2007 by Yang Na

Context and comment

“A shift of focus from social critique to personal critique can be perceived in the art of younger generation artists Yang Na (b. 1982) and Han Yajuan (b. 1980) who both grew up as only children in a world defined by global consumer culture. Using artistic styles that derive from animation, computer games and second life, their works have an inward-looking focus. In Yang Na’s Pimple 2007 (page 154) we are drawn into the self-absorbed world of beauty, fashion and appearance. Having discovered a nasty looking eruption on her forehead, the girl lances it with a needle. ‘These women are a symbol of our era of consumption,’ Yang explains. ‘Being young means being both perfect and imperfect, gorgeous and sick, happy and despondent.”
(Roberts C. , Go Figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture, 2012)

Further reading

“All Eyes Inward” in Newsweek Magazine:
www.thedailybeast.com

Yang Na’s artworks:
www.yang-na.com

The style - Animamix
www.yang-na.com

Animamix: From Modernity to Eternity
www.mocashanghai.org

Roberts, C. (2012). Go figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture. (D. C. Roberts, Ed.) Canberra and Sydney, Australia: National Portrait Gallery and The Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation.

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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