1966 年生于中国大连市，现工作生活在北京。1989 年毕业于中央美术学院版画系，同年参加中国现代艺术大展。 2002 年获 CCAA 中国当代艺术奖，并在 2011 年作为代表艺术家参加了第 54 届威尼斯双年展中国馆的展览。杨茂源是一位充满创造力的艺术家，他的作品涉及绘画，雕塑，装置，摄影等不同媒介，曾多次在国内外重要机构展出，包括：波兰华沙国立艺术博物馆，巴黎蓬皮杜中心，湖南省博物馆、今日美术馆，马丁 - 格罗皮乌斯博物馆，鄂尔多斯美术馆，帕多瓦 VILLA BREDA 博物馆，美第奇 · 里卡尔迪宫等；他的作品也被世界各地重要私人藏家、美术馆和机构收藏。
杨茂源是一位涉及雕塑、装置、素描和绘画创作的中国当代艺术家。他着迷于不同美学流派之间的结合和转化，以独特和暧昧的方式将东西方的形象或主体以对接的方式融合在一起。杨茂源常自由地引述艺术史，以自我的方式从根本改变着所谓「经典」的语境和感知，从而引导观者激发起自我思考的确定性。这种创作手法使杨茂源的作品充满了幽默与沉思，避免被任何「概念」所限制和定性，着重于艺术实践的过程，并试图从中提出容易被忽视的问题。
除此之外，杨茂源对历史及传统地区的视觉遗产有着浓厚的兴趣。自 1994 年起，杨茂源先后两次进入塔克拉玛干沙漠和罗布泊考察和拍摄纪录片，热衷于将自己置身田野中真切体悟不同的环境。杨茂源再次规避对这些历史遗产进行任何形式下的论断，而是将其作为艺术实践的新起点，用自身的风格和技巧对其进行重塑。
Born in Dalian in 1966, he graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and currently lives and works in Beijing. He has been exhibited in important institutions within China and abroad, representing China at the 54th Venice Biennale and participating in exhibitions at the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, Pompidou Centre, Hunan Provincial Museum, Today Art Museum, Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum, Ordos Art Museum, Villa Breda Museum in Padua, Medici Riccardi Palace, etcetera.
Yang Maoyuan is a Chinese contemporary artist producing sculptures, installations, drawings, and paintings. He is principally interested in the combination and transformation of different aesthetic genres, often mixing western and eastern objects or forms and approaching one with the other's perspective. Fond to quote freely from art history, Yang frequently stirs his audience to come to grips with their own certainties by fundamentally altering both the context of famous icons and the manner in which they are perceived. This often results in idiosyncratic pieces that are both humorous and meditative. Eschewing the application of any overarching "concept,” Yang Maoyuan's artistic practice consists of practical experiments that are conducive to more profound questions.
Besides, Yang Maoyuan maintains a keen interest in history and in the visual heritage of traditional communities. Having directed documentaries himself, he likes to conduct his research himself and to experience different environments first hand. Once again, he abstains from any judgement on this heritage, but instead absorbs it as the starting point of further artistic experiment, adapting and bending its generic constraints to his own style and technique.
