'Black Eagle, White Eagle: A Passage Carved from Light'

Tianjin artist Yang Bodu's solo exhibition, "Black Eagle, White Eagle," is under way at the Long Museum West Bund, featuring some 30 pieces of paintings and installations.

It runs until January 11, 2026.

The exhibition begins with a narrow doorway – a threshold that appears and circles like black-and-white eagles, gliding from one room to the next. In Yang's paintings, this doorway sometimes transforms into a slender shaft of light, sometimes a spacious portico, and at times it hides inside a box – waiting to be discovered.

The narrow doorway opens onto the artist's life journey: from her home in Philadelphia to the stillness of the museum; from the final years spent with her father to the ancient landscapes she later chose to contemplate.

Over the past decade, Yang's work has shifted from richly detailed realist interiors to an exploration of emptiness itself, where space becomes a vessel of perception. In this process, her gaze turns outward: from the architecture of interiors to the expanses of landscape. Ancient rocks, caves and fjords emerge from her canvases, guiding viewers toward a vast and timeless realm.

Yang favors the gloom of night over the brightness of day. In her landscapes, skies and seas draw viewers into a poetic, almost dreamlike realm. Yet these dramatic, mysterious settings are never the main story. Nestled among twilight mountains and bays is a small, meditative cave, perched halfway up the slope, serving as the heart of the painting. Amid shifting clouds and stormy skies, the cave shields against nature's dark theatrics – like the nest of a black-and-white eagle.

Beyond the cave, the pond becomes the exhibition's most significant motif. Along the descending path, Yang creates a deep, cool and contemplative world, centered on a modest pond, an island with architectural qualities, and dozens of surrounding paintings. As one moves through the space, the works subtly transform: reality and memory intertwine, images merge with their reflections, and distant views shift to intimate close-ups.

The exhibition concludes with a miniature wooden box, echoing the narrow doorway that opens the show. Each layer of the box contains two or three hidden compartments, inlaid with grand landscapes reminiscent of the gallery paintings but scaled down – like a portable, miniature "exhibition."

Within this winding space, Yang unfolds a story of seeing, remembering, searching, escaping and rebirth. The space itself becomes a condition of life, conveying emotion through a poetic, expressive language: the deeper the pond, the greater its power.

If you go:

Date: Through January 11, 10am-6pm (Tuesdays-Thursdays), 10am-9pm (Fridays-Sundays)

Admission: 140 yuan (Tuesdays-Thursdays); 200 yuan (Fridays-Sundays)

Venue: Staircase, Long Museum West Bund

Address: 3398 Longteng Ave, Xuhui District

徐汇区龙腾大道3398号