Lin Yan 林延

From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki

Lin Yan is an artist who works in a variety of media. Born in 1961, Lin lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Contents 1 Date & Place of Birth 2 Education & Development 3 Art 3.1 East meets West 3.2 Remaking 4 Exhibitions 5 Gallery Affiliation(s) 6 Acquisitions & Auctions 7 References

Date & Place of Birth

Lin was born in Beijing in 1961 to a family of distinguished artists.

Education & Development

In 1984, Lin received her BFA from the Department of Oil Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. Among the first wave of Chinese students to study abroad as China opened its doors, Lin attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before coming to United States in 1986.^[1] In 1989, she received his MA in Studio Art from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, PA.

Art

East meets West

In the metaphoric space between China and the West, Lin Yan installs artistic creations that convey a genetically inspired and uniquely layered perception of the Western artistic mode into which she thrust herself. She melds her multiple influences, welding past and present, East and West, to create an artistic vocabulary suitable to her own purposes. Her work aims to reject formal constraints and defy traditional expectations for the materials she uses.^[2]

That Lin Yan draws on her Asian roots is clear from her titles, like "To Beijing" and "City Moat", and the Chinese visual elements of roof tiles, Beijing window shapes, and floral motifs. The color black makes reference to the rich ink shades of traditional Chinese painting and creates a mysterious depth with the blank space made of layers of traditional Xuan paper. The echoes of Eastern culture reverberate in other works, as Lin Yan composes simultaneously from a Western perspective in a feminine but hardly frail response to Western abstraction, creating Curtain and Veil, three-dimensional sculptural works constructed again from Xuan paper but solely in white, the confluence of all color. With whispers of China hovering in the background, the juxtaposition of black and white initiates an unforeseen stream of consciousness from yin and yang to the resolution of the profoundest dualities in human nature. In the works titled Companion, surfaces are textured by graphite and pencil markings, barely visible except as energetic improvisations in line and tonality that create tensions and demand a dialogue between tradition and the contemporary world and between technical rigor and the sensual abandonment of Lin Yan’s self-conscious creations.^[3]

Lin’s 2005 series can be divided into two groups. In the first, she pastes layers of plain rice paper of differing sizes, textures, and colors onto a large plaster mold that is cast from the metal floor of her studio loft, creating a richly illuminated collage of complex textures and colors. In the second, she applies rice paper that has been soaked in ink to the plaster molds. From a distance, they appear to be pieces of black painted canvas. Closer inspection, however, reveals a fascinating visual interplay between ink, texture, fibers, and subtle variations of color. Inspired by the traditional dialogue between ink and paper in classical Chinese painting, Lin offers her own interpretation of ink on paper, raising the question: can the visual memory of these timeless elements sustain the tradition of classical Chinese painting itself?^[4]

Remaking

In her most recent series, Remaking, Lin Yan presents works inspired by the words of President Barack Obama. Her most recent works, "Remaking", "This Nation", "Brick by Brick", and "In and Out," made of Chinese paper, ink, wax and wood, juxtapose materials from her birth place of Beijing with her current home of New York. While traditional Chinese painting materials (paper and ink) are the foundation of her work, the crumbled layers of soft, handmade paper create a paradoxical post-industrial feeling. Examining and reflecting on the ramifications of China's rush to modernity, she balances restlessness with the tranquility of her materials. Her work investigates the relationship between Chinese traditional painting and modernist abstraction, as well as that between postmodern appropriation and ancient technical rigor, encompassing memory, time and history.^[5]

Exhibitions

For Lin's exhibition history, please click here.

Exhibited and collected by several museums, Lin Yan's work has been addressed in Art in America, Art News, Art AsiaPacific, and The New York Times and will be shown in a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2012.

Gallery Affiliation(s)

Lin is represented by Cheryl McGinnis Gallery in New York.

Acquisitions & Auctions

Lin Yan's work is represented in the collections of the National Art Museum of China, Pang Xunqin Museum, Cheng Du Contemporary Art Museum, and the Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts.

For Lin's auction record, please click here.

References

1. ↑ http://www.famegame.com/projects/Lin_Yan___Remaking___Art_Inspired_by_Barack_Obama
2. ↑ http://www.china2000fineart.com/onexhibit/21/onexhibit/text.html
3. ↑ http://www.china2000fineart.com/onexhibit/21/onexhibit/text.html
4. ↑ http://www.china2000fineart.com/onexhibit/21/onexhibit/text.html
5. ↑ http://www.famegame.com/projects/Lin_Yan___Remaking___Art_Inspired_by_Barack_Obama