OVERVIEW

Wang Haiyang 王海洋

Liste Year

Year of Birth

Country of Birth

Presented by

2021

1984

China

Capsule Shanghai

Having graduated from the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Wang Haiyang (b. 1984 in Shandong, China) 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.


On the occasion of Liste Showtime 2021, Capsule Shanghai presents a selection of works by Wang Haiyang, ranging from painting and video to works on paper.

WHY 0125 Untitled 2018 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Untitled | 2018 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
WHY 0131 Untitled 2018 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Untitled | 2018 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
WHY 0134 Untitled 2018 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Untitled | 2018 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
WHY 0136 Untitled 2018 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Untitled | 2018 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm

The images portrayed in the watercolors are a whimsical yet haunting collection of human and post-human creatures emerging out of watery splashes of color, exploring the chaotic associations between sexuality, social disorder, and spiritual intoxication. As the figures morph and blur into each other, Haiyang’s work plays on the idea of metamorphosis and evolution, and the process of turning from representation to abstraction, from reality to imagination.

WHY 0160 Human Beast Ghost 2019 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Human Beast Ghost | 2019 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
WHY 0154 Human Beast Ghost 2019 Framed
Wang Haiyang | Human Beast Ghost | 2019 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
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Wang Haiyang | Human Beast Ghost | 2019 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm
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Wang Haiyang | Human Beast Ghost | 2019 | watercolor on paper | 45.5 x 30.5 cm

In a Dionysian sacrificial ritual, the fear of death unmasks human desires. The nightmarish watercolors depict scenes of revelry in the face of disruption and death, where physical form melts away as identity dissipates. Organs are arbitrarily juxtaposed with torsos; torsos melt together and collapse into abstraction. Here a human body no longer represents an individual life, nor is it transformed into an object. Rather, it is deconstructed to resemble the very origin of life - the primitive force at the dawn of existence, at the moment when life rises from death, and before the formation of the Self ...

WHY 0146 Human Beast Ghost 2019 Framed Detail
Wang Haiyang | Human Beast Ghost | 2019 | watercolor on paper | 210 x 125 cm | Detail

Set somewhere between reality and dream, Untitled (2020) is a unique piece among Wang Haiyang’s new series of figurative acrylic paintings, which makes its debut at Liste Basel 2021.


A standalone piece counterbalancing the more abstracted series of watercolors sits on the opposite wall, where raging bodies emerge from watery splashes of colors. The painting realistically portrays three characters laying on a black-and-white checkerboard floor surrounded by a post-apocalyptic landscape.


Joining an intimate embrace, these androgynous figures transcend ...

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Wang made the earlier videos with a stop-motion camera and pastel drawings on sandpaper that he erased and redrew to unravel a loose narrative based upon his own subconscious associations between images. The earlier pieces are immensely intriguing: you are watching a true Surrealist with a style similar to René Magritte unfold his subconscious like an exquisite corpse.Peter Hagan, "Wang Haiyang Is the Enemy of Apathy", HuArt

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Wang Haiyang b. 1984 in Shandong, China. Currently lives and works in Beijing.


Wang's works have been selected and received critical acclaim by more than 50 International festivals. In 2010, Wang Haiyang's first animation movie Freud, Fish and Butterfly won the Grand Prize at the Holland Animation Film Fest (HAFF). In 2012 Wang's film Double Fikret won the Silver Dove at the 55th DOK Leipzig Film Festival (Leipzig, Germany). In 2014 ...

Capsule Shanghai Exterior01

Established in late 2016, Capsule Shanghai is based in Shanghai’s central Xuhui District. Situated on the first floor of a picturesque 1930s garden house in the idyllic greenery of the former French Concession, the gallery works primarily with emerging artists who push the boundaries of contemporary art. The gallery’s special focus is on artists who have personally and professionally migrated between regions, creating unique trans-national and trans-regional links.


From its inception, Capsule Shanghai sought to work with artists from China or artists who have established a profes ...