YANG BODU

b. 1986, Tianjin, China

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Yang Bodu received her BFA in 2008 from Tianjin Academy of Art, followed by her MFA from Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2012.

Yang’s work was described as departing from the ’art scene‘ mentality that renders contemporary art both exciting and problematic, and transports viewers to an isolated environment where viewing an artwork is a private activity in an entirely public space. Many works focus on the space of the museum or the art gallery, embracing this abstracted, emptied, idealized space as both a stage for human action and a celebration of its absence. For the past several years, Yang Bodu has looked at these evenly lit, dramatically constructed architectural moments as ways of seeing as well as the eventual foundations for individual material paintings. Her practice takes place in this uncanny space between private and public, between making and viewing, and between seeing and being seen.

In 2011, Yang was the recipient of the Justine Cretella Memorial Scholarship. In 2012, she won the Fellowship Trust Prize for her outstanding presentation in PAFA’s Annual Student Exhibition. In 2021, she was named one of The Artsy Vanguard 2021. Her solo exhibitions and personal projects in galleries including “The Death of Ying”, MOU PROJECT, (Hong Kong, 2024); Tang Contemporary Art (Bangkok, 2021); MINE PROJECT Gallery(Hong Kong, 2022); PAFA Alumni Gallery(Philadelphia, 2013), and Wan Wan Lei Projects (Beijing). Her works have also been exhibited in group exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum in Philadelphia, M Woods (Beijing), X Art Museum (Beijing), Hive Contemporary Art Center (Beijing), Spurs Gallery (Beijing), and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum. Her works have been collected by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, M Woods, X Museum, Long Museum, Pingshan Art Museum and other institutions.