YOLANDA HE YANG
Fusing photography, body movement, performance, video, and sculpture, Yolanda's installations delve into the hidden layers of emotion embedded within aspects of the optical experience. She seeks to offer poetic presentations that invite the viewer to experience space as it exists beyond its surface appearance and to suggest the total rupture of boundaries imposed between inside and outside, space and time. Through subtle adjustments and slight re-orientations of objects, Yolanda's installations challenge conventional notions of "meaning" while advocating for the power, resilience, and possibility inherent within fugitivity and delicacy. Her work invites viewers to explore the intimate immensity of these concepts while engaging with the politics of space and body, prompting reflections on these themes' societal and personal implications.
In her public art work, Yolanda seeks to engage communities through civic projects. By responding to site conditions and the realities of our contemporary world, she creates urban artwork installations that explore concepts of beauty, equity, and communication. Her practice aims to nurture sensibilities of feelings, awakening people's awareness of interconnectedness. Examples of her recent public artwork include Winter Optics - Sculptures with Lights at The Rose Kennedy Greenway recommended by Boston Globe Tickets, Blank Paper - Public Art Demonstration in Responding to Censorship in China covered by WBUR and The Harvard Crimson, and Napalm Test #1, which was featured on The Harvard Crimson.
Yolanda is also the initiator and caretaker of "Behind VA Shadows" - a community-based project that highlights working artists in art museums. Through her multifaceted practice, Yolanda continues to push boundaries and explore new ways of engaging with art and the world around us.
Yolanda He Yang is a Boston-based artist whose practice encompasses both personal studio work and public art. Born in a Catholic family in North China, Yolanda relocated to various places that she remembered as homes, schools, and playgrounds when she was a child.
gmail: yolandayanghe@gmail.com
CV (with the embedded link of the press)
COMMISSIONED PUBLIC ART PROJECT
2025 Coffin Farm Residency, Redmond, Washington State
2023 “from here and now to Napalm Test #1”, Brookline Arts Center, 2023 Public Artist
25/8 artspace at Harvard Square, Founding Curator ( - present)
2022 Blank Paper Public Art Demo, Lead Artist
Winter Optics, The Greenway, Lead Artist
Spotlight, Mirror, and Book, Lead Artist
Napalm, from Harvard to Vietnam, Lead Artist
Behind VA Shadows, Director, Founder ( - present )
Ukraine Echo, Lead Artist
2021 Ujala: Public Art in India, Lead Artist
33 years, Researcher
“Blossom”, Permanent Outdoor Sculpture in Collins Park, Allston, MA
VIDEOCOMMUNE, Now + There Accelerator, Conceptual Collaborator, Set Designer
2020 Collins Park Renovation, Landscape Designer
TEACHING, JURY EXPERIENCE
2024 Boys and Girls Clubs Boston, National Arts Contest, Juror
2023 Art with Amy, Brookline, MA, Art Instructor (ongoing)
2023 Zone 3, Allston, MA, Body Movement Workshop Series, Lead Artist
2021 Boston University, Public Art in Arts Administration Graduate Program, Lecturer
2017 Uncle Sam Kindergarten, Qingdao, China, Art Instructor
COMMUNITY ART CURATION
2024 25/8 artspace, fanfare of clouds opening, Cameron Boyce & Gateway Arts
2023 Raising Voices Festival x Revolutionary Spaces, “Chairs & Cares ” Public Art, Boston, MA
2023 25/8 artspace, Glitch Art, Maria Servellon, Cambridge, MA
2023 25/8 artspace, Bike Moves Us, Nat Reed Solo Exhibit, Cambridge, MA
2023 Leica Gallery, “Lenses” Pop-up Performance Collective, Boston, MA
2023 Laconia Gallery, The Landscape in Our Minds, Boston, MA
2022 Pop-Up Gallery, via, June 1 - June 20, 2022, Downtown Crossing Boston, MA
SOLO PERFORMANCE
2024 Itchy Grief, Warehouse XI, Somerville, MA, 2024
Mobius Group, “One Minute Movement”, Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA
2023 MG SPACE, “of a woman herself - Hinges (variation)”, Beijing, China
Boston Art Review, The Station, Closing Reception for “Nervous System”, Boston, MA
Faro Cafe, “of a woman herself - Hinges”, Cambridge, MA
Gallery 263, The Sand of Imagination, Cambridge, MA
SOLO EXHIBIT
2024 through sites and objects, Helena Abdelnasser Studio Residency, Cairo, Egypt
2023 Silent Symphony: A Tribute to Tears, UVA Arthaus Gallery, Boston, MA
TWO & THREE-PERSON EXHIBIT
2024 Next Stop 17927, Milton, MA
2023 Next Pace, MG Space, Beijing, China
GROUP EXHIBITION
2024 Happy Trails, 25 Pratt St, Allston, MA
Golden Colonel, Flux Factory, Governors Island, NY
sculpturecore, 1270 Commonwealth Ave former CVS, Boston, MA
2023 The View from Mars, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
Let There Be Light, Newton Open Studio, Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA
New Language: Contemporary Abstraction, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
HARMONY, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
Emerging Artists 2023, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
Fresh Faces, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA
Bittersweet, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
2022 Tradition: Reinvented, Cambridge Association of Art
pin-up, :iiderr Gallery, New York, New York
The Cadaver / The Body, Gallery 5, Boston, MA
Shapeshifting, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
Invisible Disability, Unbound Visual Art, Brighton, MA
Tips of the Tongue, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
2021 Chasing Light, Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
AWARDS, NOMINATATIONS
2024 Dedalus Foundation - MFA Fellowship, Nominee of Boston University
2022 Merit Student with 75% Scholarship in MFA Sculpture, CFA, Boston University
2019 Honored Graduated Student, Class of 2019, Nankai University
Residency
2024 Helena Abdelnasser Studio Residency, Cairo, Egypt
2023 Old Ferry Residency, Deer Isle, Maine
Press
2023 Napalm, Birthed in Harvard’s Basement _ Magazine _ The Harvard Crimson
2023 Local artist stages demonstration inspired by protesters in China _ WBUR News
2023 Community Highlight Yolanda He Yang — Brookline Arts Center
2023 MG SPACE, Beijing, Solo Performance by Yolanda He Yang | 即将展出 _ 下一个步伐
2023 MG SPACE _ About herself-_hinge
2022 Behind VA Shadows_An Alternative Form of Support for Museum. Frontline Staff