The Lanterns Glow

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Artist Biography

Jake Yang is a recent graduate of Adelaide Central School of Art, Kaurna Land, Adelaide. He explores various disciplines, notably painting, sculpture, textiles, and installation.  

Yang’s art practice navigates queer youth culture and the way it sits alongside and intersects with his cultural background, raised in a conservative traditional Chinese culture. He challenges the normative assumptions through an examination of intersecting identities and existing in three very different cultures simultaneously (Chinese, Australian and queer). His internal conflict, sense of fracture self and search of safe spaces are navigated where privacy, intimacy, care, and freedom are presented in lush, safe natural environments.  

Yang’s practice is influenced by traditional Chinese cultural artefacts and techniques as a means of connecting and embracing his neglected cultural identity growing up. Transposing these traditional elements into an exploration of queer culture and personal relationships in art is an expression of empowerment, self-development and self-acceptance.  

Artist Statement

"As an emerging artist, I feel committed to a practice that fosters discussion of cultural intersectionality, both through my Chinese heritage as well as speaking to my queer culture. The exposure of these intersecting themes demands urgency and importance in today’s treatment of queer people of colour." - Jake Yang