Yang Yongliang (born 1980, Shanghai) is a Chinese contemporary artist whose work bridges classical Chinese landscape painting and digital media. Trained in traditional ink painting, Yang draws inspiration from shanshui aesthetics while employing photography, video, 3D modeling, and digital collage to construct monumental artificial landscapes.
At first glance, his works evoke misty mountains and waterfalls reminiscent of Song dynasty painting. On closer inspection, these landscapes reveal themselves as assemblages of skyscrapers, highways, construction sites, surveillance cameras, and industrial debris. Through this visual tension, Yang Yongliang reflects on the rapid urbanization of China, the erosion of nature, and the fragile balance between tradition and modernity.
His practice is marked by a strong sense of scale, time, and silence. Often presented as large-scale prints or immersive video installations, his works function as contemporary ruins, poetic yet unsettling, where technological progress replaces the natural sublime.
Yang Yongliang’s work has been exhibited internationally in major museums, biennials, and institutions, and is included in significant public and private collections. He is widely regarded as one of the leading figures of China’s new media and conceptual landscape art.