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 commentary 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.

Yin Zhaoyang, born in 1970, came of age in a post-Mao China. His new paintings communicate a sense of transcendence of memory – a process whereby memory is pulled into the present and examined more for its image making potential than for its ability to assign content. By virtue of this process of examination and reflection, a connection is created between artist and subject, placing one in relation to the other. Yin Zhaoyang’s work bypasses a critical or judgmental stance, in favor of an image driven sense of immortality.

Yin Zhaoyang graduated from the printing department of the central academy of fine arts in Beijing. He has been widely exhibited throughout Europe and asia and currently lives and works in Beijing.