Yang Art Museum, located in Beijing’s Solana Lifestyle Shopping Park, celebrates its opening with the exhibition “Concealed Power.” Yang Art Museum was established with the financial support of Solana Co., Ltd, in a space about 2,000 square meters in size. On the intentions behind its founding, founder Stella Wang explains that it was built to realize the dreams of her father, also an art collector, who had always wanted to establish, in a public space, a vehicle for sharing the beauty of art. Well-suited to the fashionable, international temperament of Solana, Stella has positioned the museum as a venue for contemporary art, integrating art forms that are alive and fresh into a vibrant commercial district.

The “yang” in “Yang Art Museum” means “center” or “central” in Chinese. Wang explains that in establishing an art museum in such a developed commercial district, the hope is to usher art more effectively into public life, help more people to understand art, and indeed transform the space into another cultural center. “Yang” is also homophonic with the English word “young”: the museum focuses on young artists and emerging art forms, and will support talented young artists through the establishment of a special fund. Yang Art Museum will also use its advantageous location to develop close relationships with surrounding communities and schools, launching a wide range of public education programs.

“Concealed Power,” the opening exhibition curated by Liu Libin, is divided into five parts: “Fluid bodies,” “Moving bodies,” “Flat bodies,” “Mixed bodies” and “Layered bodies.” According to the curator’s introduction, in the process of artistic creation the body itself penetrates the entire process as a medium. With this multi-“bodied” presentation he shows the artist’s exploration of the relationship between “body” and “material.” For instance, in “Fluid bodies,” each of the artists melts their materials, creating a work out from their flowing properties. In “Layered bodies,” works are formed through the overlay or reconstruction of material. Participating works come from Liu Jianhua, Zhang Wang, Fang Lijun and other long-established artists, as well as Hu Qingyan,Wen Hao, and other emerging artists. In 2016, Yang Art Museum will host a series of exhibition programs including the “Yang Art Museum Young Artists Festival,” a “Yang Art Museum Collections Exhibition,” and a “Contemporary Sculpture Group Exhibition.”