Huang Yan is one of the most representative and pioneering artists in China today.
Since 1994, he has recorded his ideas and behavioral art through oil painting and photography. His forms of creation are diverse - often spreading traditional painting method and behavioral narrative into his photography, while also bringing new contemporary features into his paintings.
Since 1997, he has had solo exhibitions in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Milan. Since 1998, he has participated in more than 30 international group exhibitions, including “Red China” in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1998), “Past and Future - China's New Photography and Video Art” in the International Center of Photography in New York & the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art (2004), “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013), Guangzhou Triennial, Chengdu Biennial, Prague Biennial, International Video Art Biennial in Israel, Sao Paulo Biennial, “We Are Your Future” Moscow Biennial, “ARTIUM” Contemporary Photography Exhibition in Madrid, Venice Biennial, etc.
His works are collected by many important art museums around the world, such as National Centre of the Performing Art in China, The National Art Museum of China, Guangdong Museum of Art, The British Museum, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Victoria &Albert Museum, Harvard Art Museum, The International Center of Photography New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc., as well as Artur Walther, Lawrence Schiller, Thomas Kann, Guy & Myriam Ullens (Belgium), Uli Sigg (Switzerland), Johnson Tsong-zung Chang (Hong Kong) and Cissy Pao-Watari (Hong Kong), etc.