BONES AND SKULLS IN PORCELAIN

Yang Jiechang, The skull.

My son who is a digital animator specialising in the human body drew my attention to the ceramic work of Yang Jiechang. I found the pieces quite beautiful and not ostentatious like Damien Hirst's diamond skull.

All pieces are produced in Jingdezhen kilns, which are renowned for some of the highest quality ceramics in China, then hand painted with traditional flower motifs.
By combining Chinese master crafts, like ceramics, with skulls and bones, inspired from vanitas iconography in Western art, Yang Jiechang creates a strong yet poetic artwork questioning the meaning of life and the importance of memory in contemporary society.
Each artwork comes in a custom box signed by the artist with a certificate of authenticity.

Yang Jiechang. b. 1956 Guangdong Province, China. Lives in Heidelberg, Germany, and Paris, France. Yang Jiechang (Guangdong 1956) is one of the best known overseas Chinese painters. The artist studied calligraphy and traditional painting and borrows on those skills to create contemporary works, like ink-dripped characters, maps and traditional landscape images with a modern feel. He also has created collages, installations and performance art. He studied in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts from 1978 to 1982. He lives and works in Paris and Heidelberg, Germany since 1988.

For more info check out Galerie Conrads.