Xu Yang Chinese, b. 1996

Xu Yang (b.1996 Shandong, China) lives and works in London. She studied Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts and graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2020. Xu was recently awarded a commission by Tate Collective for LGBTQIA+ history month (2023). Xu Yang is a multi-disciplinary artist creating artwork with political undercurrents. Challenging her traditional Asian upbringing, Xu deploys her queer identity in her art to investigate how femininity is a social construct. Inspired by and referencing 17th and 18th century western art history, most often constructed and seen via the male gaze, Xu is influenced by historical and contemporary drag performance, cabaret and theatre. 

Positioning herself as a model, Xu explores the position of women and images of the feminine in contemporary society and pop culture through painting, performance and photography. Transforming her body-shape with silicone breasts, corsets, hip pads, wigs and make-up allows for an investigation of the idealised female figure as well as social media’s use of image filters to produce body shame and to redefine values of the feminine. Probing themes of power and identity and the dialogue between painting’s contemporary iterations and its history, there is a concern in Xu Yang’s work with the emotional response triggered and the potential for its reinterpretation and retranslation through a new encounter.