Danful Yang Chinese, 1980

Danful Yang is a young Chinese designer and head of the Shanghai-based consortium of designers XYZ Design.

Yang's works are often playful and incorporate objects and materials in unexpected ways.  Yang uses both traditional Chinese arts and crafts techniques as well as modern Western materials, which is reflective of her own cross-cultural experiences in cosmopolitan Shanghai and abroad.  Her Fake Armchair is an over-the-top hybrid chair that is an amalgamation of Chinese and western Rococo styles and upholstered with fake designer handbags.  The creative work is a cross-cultural bombardment of visual stimuli, turning imitation into originality and reflecting the onslaught of a globalised consumer culture.  Vase Coffee Table reverses the expected vase-table relationship, as the traditionally shaped Chinese porcelain vases are skewered through the table legs rather than set on the surface.

"In China, we don't discriminate between art and design," Yang says. "It's about creativity and the idea behind the object." 

While the  works are always visually dynamic, Yang is unafraid to experiment with materials and put her own twist on traditional concepts.  By not imposing self-limits, Yang is able to achieve her vision with personal works that represent contemporary Chinese culture.

Yang has worked closely with renowned designers such as Martin Szekely, Andre Dubreuil, Juergen Bey, Mattia Bonettie, and Maarten Baas, among others, as well as skilled craftsmen who have contributed to her design education.

Her works have been collected by The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Craig Robins (part-owner of Design Miami), and Billie Weisman (The Fredrick R. Weisman Art Foundation) and many private collectors.