diff --git a/python/mxnet/visualization.py b/python/mxnet/visualization.py
index 23e448300a45..fc6db1ddcb31 100644
--- a/python/mxnet/visualization.py
+++ b/python/mxnet/visualization.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 import re
 import copy
 import json
-import logging
+import warnings
 from .symbol import Symbol
 
 def _str2tuple(string):
@@ -254,13 +254,13 @@ def plot_network(symbol, title="plot", save_format='pdf', shape=None, node_attrs
     nodes = conf["nodes"]
     # check if multiple nodes have the same name
     if len(nodes) != len(set([node["name"] for node in nodes])):
-        seen = set()
-        seen_add = seen.add
+        seen_nodes = set()
         # find all repeated names
-        repeated = set(node['name'] for node in nodes if node['name'] in seen
-                       or seen_add(node['name']))
-        logging.warning("There are multiple variables with the same name in your graph, "
-                        "this may result in cyclic graph. Repeated names: %s", ','.join(repeated))
+        repeated = set(node['name'] for node in nodes if node['name'] in seen_nodes
+                       or seen_nodes.add(node['name']))
+        warning_message = "There are multiple variables with the same name in your graph, " \
+                          "this may result in cyclic graph. Repeated names: " + ','.join(repeated)
+        warnings.warn(warning_message, RuntimeWarning)
     # default attributes of node
     node_attr = {"shape": "box", "fixedsize": "true",
                  "width": "1.3", "height": "0.8034", "style": "filled"}
diff --git a/tests/python/unittest/test_viz.py b/tests/python/unittest/test_viz.py
index 73cfa94ba030..e8aaebada152 100644
--- a/tests/python/unittest/test_viz.py
+++ b/tests/python/unittest/test_viz.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 # under the License.
 
 import mxnet as mx
+import warnings
 
 def test_print_summary():
     data = mx.sym.Variable('data')
@@ -32,5 +33,19 @@ def test_print_summary():
     shape["data"]=(1,3,28,28)
     mx.viz.print_summary(sc1, shape)
 
+def test_plot_network():
+    # Test warnings for cyclic graph
+    net = mx.sym.Variable('data')
+    net = mx.sym.FullyConnected(data=net, name='fc', num_hidden=128)
+    net = mx.sym.Activation(data=net, name='relu1', act_type="relu")
+    net = mx.sym.FullyConnected(data=net, name='fc', num_hidden=10)
+    net = mx.sym.SoftmaxOutput(data=net, name='out')
+    with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
+        digraph = mx.viz.plot_network(net, shape={'data': (100, 200)},
+                                      node_attrs={"fixedsize": "false"})
+    assert len(w) == 1
+    assert "There are multiple variables with the same name in your graph" in str(w[-1].message)
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    test_print_summary()
+    import nose
+    nose.runmodule()