2025
Oil on canvas
20x20cm
YaYa Yajie Liang’s striking, large-scale paintings capture moments of metamorphosis between human, animal and mineral. These transformations can be likened to the changes and flux of shores, where land and sea continuously reshape one another. Liang’s work resonates with the concept of assisted evolution, where adaptation is accelerated by both natural forces and human intervention. Her improvised technique further embodies the unpredictability of life in these areas, with fluid, expressive brushwork and layered textures mirroring the ever-shifting boundaries between forms, species, and environments.
YaYa Yajie Liang (b. 1995, Henan, CN) lives and works in London, UK. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK and a BA in Fine Art from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, CN. She is currently a PhD researcher at the Royal College of Art, London, UK. She has exhibited internationally at galleries including Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK; Josh Lilly’s Gallery, London, UK; Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK; Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, AT; Lyles & King, New York, NY; Cob Gallery, London, UK; Unit, London, UK; Luce Gallery, Turin, IT; BLANK Gallery, Shanghai, CH; HdM Gallery, London, UK.
Shorelines are places of constant, visible change, perceivable over hours instead of millennia. They were the location of the tetrapod’s uncomfortable, wriggly and exhausting first steps or slithers within the intertidal zone between 390 – 360 million years ago, and they continue to shape the evolution of life today, serving as dynamic habitats where organisms must continually adapt to shifting tides and changing climates.
