Zhiyang (黄致阳, Huang Chih-Yang) was born in 1965 in Taipei, Taiwan, and graduated from the Taipei Chinese Cultural University in 1989 majoring in Chinese traditional ink painting.
His work has been summarized by critics as the application of traditional Chinese techniques to an American tradition of Abstract Expressionism. Frequent motifs in Huang’s work make reference to the natural world, particularly to bamboo and landscapes, though the images are not immediately recognizable. Huang also produces abstract installations, and has worked in sculptural materials like bamboo and gilded bronze.
When talked about himself and his art Zhiyang said“… In my view, it’s always important to consider matters from the vantage point of a bit of time and distance. Consequently, I tend to view life from the sidelines, deliberately maintaining some distance from the mainstream, seemingly ‘drifting away’ from the main currents of everyday life. ‘Drifting away’ for me, usually means questioning my surroundings and the status quo. You could say I’ve developed an attitude towards life that I adhere to, where I intentionally keep some distance from the mainstream and from what might be considered central to others. For most, contemporary art is widely accepted as integral to everyday life. However, this does not mean that trends in contemporary art can solve all of life’s problems nor become part of the mainstream.”
Huang Zhiyang has been exhibited extensively throughout New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Taiwan, and Germany, and has shown at the National Art Museum of China (Beijing) and Shanghai World Expo. In 1995 he was the feature artist of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and has earned his way into the collections of UBS Bank (Switzerland), US State Department’s Art in Embassies Program, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and Hong Kong Museum of Art. He has a permanent public installation in Xintiandi, Shanghai, and a retrospective of his work was held at the National Museum of China on Tiananmen Square in Beijing from March to April 2014.