Yang Fuxu – A Leading Voice of Shenzhen’s New Generation of Oil Painters

Yang Fuxu belongs to the new generation of oil painters who grew up in Shenzhen after 2010. Shenzhen, the pioneering city of China’s Reform and Opening-Up, has attracted waves of young talents and artists since the 1980s—people who arrived with dreams, ideas, and a desire to reshape their futures through art.

In the early years, Shenzhen artists focused heavily on scenes of the Special Economic Zone’s rapid development. Construction workers, migrant laborers, and the everyday struggles of people building a new city became the most common subjects. These works captured the hardship, hope, and longing for a better life in this young land of opportunity.

By the 1990s, artistic themes began to shift. Shenzhen painters started to explore the city’s emerging cultural identity, modern lifestyle, and evolving social values.
After 2010, a new generation of artists—those who truly grew up in Shenzhen—began expressing a different perspective. Their work no longer looked only at the city’s physical growth, but focused on inner life, personal feelings, and a more poetic interpretation of urban experience. Yang Fuxu is one of the most outstanding representatives of this generation.

Born in Qinzhou, Guangxi, Yang showed a passion for painting from a young age. He graduated from Guangxi Arts Institute in 1998, and later furthered his studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. He moved to Dafen Village in the late 1990s to pursue painting as a full-time profession.
On paper, his artistic path may seem steady and modest, but meeting him in person quickly changes that perception. Despite his humble and gentle appearance, his early works already revealed a vivid imagination and emotional sensitivity.

By the late 1990s, his paintings of fish and landscapes displayed an instinctive grasp of color, composition, and expressive form—qualities that already set him apart from many of his peers. Around 2010, he began developing what would become a defining series in his career: oil paintings centered on trees.

This series earned wide recognition and was selected for numerous major exhibitions at national, provincial, and municipal levels, such as:

• 2013 – “Our Homeland • Southwest Soil and People” Oil Painting Exhibition
• 2014 – 3rd National Youth Oil Painting Exhibition
• 2015 – 9th “Western Land” National Oil & Chinese Painting Exhibition
• 2016 – 4th National Realist Oil Painting Exhibition of China
• 2017 – 5th National “New Faces of Oil Painting” Exhibition

These achievements marked the maturity of Yang’s artistic language. His paintings balance solid academic technique with a lyrical, expressive visual poetry. Drawing inspiration from the essence of European realist oil painting, he blends figurative structure with emotional symbolism, creating a distinctive artistic voice rooted in both skill and spirit.

In recent years, Yang has continued to explore the imagery of trees, creating the “Dancers” Series, a group of finely crafted oil paintings in which trees become metaphors for human beings—carriers of life force, resilience, emotion, and inner strength. Through trees, he speaks about personal growth, dignity, vitality, and the deeper meaning of existence. It is evident that this subject is not chosen by chance, but driven by his inner passion and respect for art.

Although Yang is a professional painter, he is far from detached from life. He actively participates in community and cultural activities, teaches public art classes for young students, contributes to art programs in Shenzhen, and frequently travels for plein-air painting. These experiences continue to enrich his vision and expand his creative depth.

Like the trees he paints, Yang’s artistic journey has endured wind and rain, yet continues to grow with remarkable vitality. His works leave viewers with two powerful impressions: purity of beauty, and a profound emotional force that resonates long after the viewing.

At a time when contemporary Chinese painting exists in a diverse and rapidly evolving environment—and as Shenzhen becomes an increasingly international and culturally open city—Yang has chosen to stay grounded, focused, and sincere in his artmaking. This is both his wisdom and his blessing.

We look forward to seeing new chapters in his artistic life and more moving works in the years ahead. Wishing his first solo oil painting exhibition every success.