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William Yang Patrick White #3 King's Cross (1980) Gelatin silver photograph 51 x 33.5cm |
Biography
| One
of few Australian artists to have a long-term dialogue with the public,
William Yang is internationally renowned for his photographic and performance
works. Born in Mareeba, North Queensland in 1943, William studied architecture
at The University of Queensland before relocating to Sydney in 1969. After
working as a playwright with an experimental theatre company, he turned
his hand to photography more seriously in 1974.
William’s premier exhibition, Sydneyphiles (1977), documented Sydney’s celebrity and gay party scene and polarised viewers with its graphic and striking imagery. Since then, William has become highly regarded for his honest portraiture, sublime landscapes and reflective examinations of Chinese-Australian cultures. William has held numerous exhibitions of his photographs throughout Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. His work is represented in the following public collections: National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery/GoMA, State Library of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cairns Regional Gallery, The University of Queensland, Higashigawa-cho Municipal Gallery, Hokkaido, Japan and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan. Since 1989, William’s other major vehicle of expression has been live performance. His photographs serve as bookmarks and illustrations to his melodious, poetic monologues. Many of William’s performance works have toured across Australia and the world; Sadness was recreated as a multi-award winning motion picture in 1999. William was awarded International Photographer of the Year at the Higashigawa-cho International Photographic Festival, Japan in 1993. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from The University of Queensland in 1998 and was awarded the H.C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship by the Australian National University in 2007. William continues to explore issues of history, self and identity. He was commissioned to create a new performance piece, My Generation, for the opening of the National Portrait Gallery in 2008. His work was prominently featured in Queensland Art Gallery’s The China Project in 2009 and will be included in The University of Queensland Art Museum’s National Self Portrait Prize 2009. William lives and works in Sydney, travelling often to Queensland and China. |
Selected Individual Exhibitions
| 2009 | My
Uncle’s Murder and Other Stories, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane
Life Lines (part of The China Project), Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane |
| 2008 | Claiming
China, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; Monash Gallery of
Art, Melbourne
Miscellaneous Obssessions 2, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra |
| 2007 | Breathing the Rarefied Air of Canberra, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra |
| 2006 | William
Yang: Selected Photographs 1968–2003, Mackay Regional Gallery, Mackay;
Bathurst Regional Gallery, New South Wales; Manning Regional Gallery, New
South Wales; Port Hastings Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales; Bendigo
Art Gallery, Victoria; Logan Art Gallery, Queensland; National Wool Museum,
Geelong, Victoria; Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland; Albury Regional
Gallery, New South Wales; Mossman Art Gallery, New South Wales; Wollongong
City Gallery, New South Wales; Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland
Enngonia, Rhur Museum, Mineralien-Museum, Essen, Germany |
| 2001 | Australian
Chinese, Gallery 4A, Sydney; Luna Theatre, Brussels, Belgium; National
Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
Miscellaneous Obsessions, Stills Gallery, Sydney; Adelaide Festival Centre, South Australia |
| 2000 | Images, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane; Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, NSW |
| 1998 | Diaries, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney |
| 1997 | Friends
of Dorothy, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Stolen Moments, Photofeis, Edinburgh |
| 1995 | Land
and Sea, Canberra Civic Centre; George Gallery, Melbourne; Barry Stern
Gallery, Sydney
Written Works, Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney; Darwin Entertainment Centre Gallery, Northern Territory; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Western Australia; Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania Patrick White, Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney |
| 1994 | Sydney Photographed, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney |
| 1993 | From Bondi to Ularu, Higashikawa Arts Centre, Hokkaido, Japan |
| 1991 | Australian Faces and Places, Ordos Museum, Yi League, Inner Mongolia, China |
| 1988 | Living Together, New South Wales Bicentennial Exhibition, Sydney |
| 1984 | Sydney Diary, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney |
| 1977 | Sydneyphiles, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2009 | A Chinese Legacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane |
| 2008 | Men Like Me, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne |
| 2007 | Queensland:
Sunshine State, Campbelltown Art Gallery, Sydney
National Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Reveries: Photography & Mortality, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane; Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria |
| 2006 | Australian Photographic Portrait Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
| 2005 | Australian
Photographic Portrait Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Points of view: Australian photography 1985–95, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art and About, Sydney In a New Light: Australian Photography 1930s–2000, National Library of Australia, Canberra |
| 2004 | Jia
(Family, House, Home), Hong Kong International Arts Festival, Hong
Kong
Home, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, England; and various UK galleries Art and About, Sydney |
| 2003 | POL:
Portrait of a Generation, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Synergies, ANU, Drill Hall, Canberra Hung, Drawn and Quartered, Tin Sheds, Sydney JIA, Gallery 4A, Sydney |
| 2002 | Imaging Identity and Place, Grafton Regional Gallery. Toured to Manly, Orange, Bendigo, Albury, Tweed River, Campbelltown, Gold Coast, Tamworth |
| 2001 | Brownies and Blondies, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels |
| 2000 | Complicity, Australian
Centre for Photography, Sydney
Visualising AIDS: Images in Art and Design, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney A Long Life, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Ecstacy, Wessel + O’Connor Gallery, New York, NY, USA Exposure, Wemyss Gallery, Sydney Mirror with a Memory, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra World Without End, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Federation, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Surrender, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels Brownies and Blondies, Torch Gallery, Amsterdam |
| 1998 | On
the Edge, Australian Photographers of the Seventies, San Diego Museum
of Art, San Diego
Waterproof, Centra Cultural de Belem, Lisboa, Portugal Close Relationships, Australian Center for Photography, Sydney |
| 1997 | Missing, II Ponte Contemporanca, Rome |
| 1994 | AustralAsian
Exhibition, Hong Kong (sponsored by the Australian Consulate General,
South China Morning Post and Qantas)
Art in the Age of AIDS, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra +Positive: Artists Addressing AIDS, Cambelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney |
| 1993 | Personal
Fictions: Art of This World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Mardi Gras, Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney A View From Australia, Australia Week Exhibition, Beijing, China |
Monologues with Slides
| 2008 | China,
Stables Theatre, Sydney
Shadows, USA tour, Marylands, Cedar Rapids, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, Hanover China, Stavanger, Bergen, Norway; Kunsten Festival, Brussels, Belgium; Alkantara Festival, Lisbon, Portugal; Theater Der Welt, Halle, Germany; Orego Arts Festival, Dunedin, New Zealand, Nelson Arts Festival, New Zealand My Generation, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra |
| 2007 | China, Performance Space at CarriageWorks, Sydney; OzAsia Festival, Adelaide; Melbourne International Festival, Melbourne |
| 2006 | Shadows,
Under The Radar festival, New York, NY, USA; Illawarra Performing Arts
Centre, Wollongong, New South Wales; Glen Street Theatre, Sydney; Canberra
Theatre Centre, ACT; Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane; Caloundra Cultural
Centre, Queensland; Darwin Entertainment Centre, Northern Territory; Tanks
Art Centre, Cairns
Objects For Meditation, Singapore. Melbourne Festival, Melbourne China, development stage |
| 2005 | From
the Inside Out, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, New South Wales
Objects For Meditation, Sydney Opera House, Sydney; Kunsten Festival, Brussels, Belgium; River Festival, Brisbane, also Oslo, Norway; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Lyon, France; Reunion Islands |
| 2004 | From
the Inside Out, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
Sadness, Romaeuropa Festival, Rome, Italy Blood Links, Romaeuropa Festival, Rome, Italy Friends of Dorothy, Romaeuropa Festival, Rome, Italy |
| 2003 | Romaeuropa
Festival, Rome, London, Strasbourg, Dublin, Philadelphia.
Shadows, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal, Canada The Journeys of William Yang (Performance retrospective: Shadows, Blood Links, Friends of Dorothy, Sadness), Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney Blood Links, Singapore International Arts Festival, Singapore Shadows, Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris France; Festival d’Automne, Paris, France |
| 2002 | Shadows,
Sydney Festival, New South Wales; Perth Festival, Western Australia; Adelaide
Festival, South Australia; Bergan International Festival, Bergen, Norway
Friends of Dorothy, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne; It’s Queer Up North Festival, Manchester, England Blood Links, Houston, USA, Theaterformen, Hannover and Braunschweig, Speilstand 02, Frankfurt, Germany, Strasbourg, France, Bite 02, London, Theater Spektakel, Zurich, De Keuze van de Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Artsaustralia Berlin 02, Berlin, 4th China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Shanghai, Asia Society and Snug Harbour, New York. |
| 2001 | Friends
of Dorothy, High Performance Rodeo Festival, Calgary
Blood Links, Six Stages Festival, Toronto, Hero Festival, Auckland, Taranaki Festival, New Plymouth, NZ, Kunsten Festival, Brussels, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, USA Festival d’Automne, Paris, France |
| 2000 | The
North, Culturgest Festival, Lisboa, Portugal
Blood Links, Little Asia Festival, Hong Kong and Taipei; Restless Gravity Festival, Swansea, St Donats, Bangor, Aberystwyth, Wales; Brisbane |
| 1999 | The
North, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, Connecicut
Blood Links, Performance Space, Sydney Friends of Dorothy, FEAST Festival, Adelaide |
| 1998 | The
North toured Perth; Albany; Bunbury; Karratha; Broome; Alice Springs;
Darwin; Cairns; Townsville; Mackay; Lismore; Geelong; Launceston; Hobart
Friends of Dorothy, Performance Space, Sydney |
| 1997 | The
North toured Brisbane; Adelaide; Canada; London; Germany; New Zealand
Sadness toured Vancouver, Canada; Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen |
| 1996 | Sadness,
queerupnorth1996, Manchester; Liverpool; Institute of Contemporary Arts,
London
The North, National Festival of Australian Theatre, Canberra; Melbourne Festival; Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney |
| 1995 | The
Fabulous Trifle, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Sadness toured New Zealand; North Queensland; Darwin; Perth; Geelong, Hobart; Albury; Katoomba; London; Manchester; Minneapolis |
| 1994 | Sadness, Hong Kong Fringe Festival; Adelaide Festival of the Arts; New Zealand International Festival with seasons, Auckland; Brisbane |
| 1993 | Sadness, Asian Theatre Season, Sydney; Melbourne International Festival; National Festival of Australian Theatre, Canberra |
| 1992 | Sadness, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney |
| 1990 | China Diary, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney; Modern Image Makers Festival, Melbourne |
| 1989 | The
Face of Buddha, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
Excerpt from The Face of Buddha, Writers in Recital, Perspecta Readings, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Spoletto Fringe Festival, Melbourne |
Monographs
| Lo,
Jacqueline. ‘William Yang: Ghostly Inventories’ in Turner, Caroline and
Williams, David. Recovering Lives, Research School of Humanities and School
of Art Gallery, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2008
Lo, Jacqueline. ‘Ghostly Inventories’ in Yang, William. My Uncle’s Murder, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, 2009 William Yang:Selected Photographs 1968–2003, Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, 2003 Yang, William. Australian Chinese: William Yang, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2001 Yang, William. China, Currency Press, Sydney, 2008 Yang, William. Diaries: A retrospective exhibition: 25 years of social, personal and landscape photography, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 1998 Yang, William. Friends of Dorothy, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 1997 Yang, William. My Uncle’s Murder, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, 2009 Yang, William. Patrick White: The Late Years, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 1995 Yang, William. Sadness, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1996 Yang, William. Starting Again: A Time in the Life of William Yang, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1989 Yang, William. Sydney Diary: 1974–1984, James Fraser, Sydney, 1984 Yang, William. ‘William Yang: Life Lines’ in The China Project, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Yang, William and Pip, Chris. Bodywork: Confessions from the Funeral Trade, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1990 |
Collections
| National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Library of Australia, Canberra National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Queensland Art Gallery/GoMA, Brisbane State Library of New South Wales, Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Queensland The University of Queensland, Brisbane Higashigawa-cho Municipal Gallery, Hokkaido, Japan Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan |