Oct.7-Dec.26, 2022 — Visual Arts

Nationality: China
Residency location: Zurich
Partner organization: Gleis 70

Wang Haiyang, born in 1984 in Shandong, currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Graduated from the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wang employs a multimedia approach to expand the rhetorical scope of art. His work reflects on contemporary existential topics while investigating, through the medium of the body, themes such as identity, language and lust.

Wang’s works have been selected and received critical acclaim by more than 50 international art and film festivals. His recent solo shows include Wang Haiyang, Capsule Shanghai Shanghai, China (2018); Wang Haiyang, White Space Beijing, Beijing, China, (2018); By Himself at OCAT in Xi’an, China (2017); New Directions: Wang Haiyang, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, China (2016); Dynamic Field: Wang Haiyang, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2016).

Wang Haiyang’s work is inspired by China’s rapid urbanization and his personal experience when growing up in such a context. His work often exhibits the tension between sexual liberation and the surrounding chaotic urban environment. Within his practice of painting and video, Wang draws inspiration from the marginalized and hidden places in the cities, and exposes body and desire in an illusionary yet carnivalesque world, to discuss the fused and conflicted relationship between the flow of sex and an ever-changing life environment.

During the residency, Wang Haiyang will start a new project of researching the history of the sex culture of Switzerland and the differences between the two countries. Through making a series of video and painting works, he tries to discuss the hidden aspects of the relationship between sex culture and urban development. The process of doing research and creating work will be reported and shared during his residency. He hopes to present an exhibition on the themes of urban space and sex at the end of his stay, showing his works made from in Beijing and Switzerland together.