ARTIST STATEMENT
Having left China 18 years ago I had to confront a number of obstacles
– learning English, earning a living and coming to grips with a
different culture – but I had the freedom to paint how and what
I wished. Hurdles faced by a migrant in a new country, and difficulties
generally encountered in life, are played out many of my paintings with
a tongue-in-cheek, sardonic sense of humour some might perceive as being
Australian in character, but which no doubt find their real impetus in
my experiences of a politically straight-jacketed, tradition-bound Chinese
art world.
My art is personal and is a means of understanding what was originally for me an alienating and disturbing environment.
The big bowl motif is central to my latest series of paintings. In this series a number of pink-faced men (as seen in earlier works) are crammed inside and spill over the edge of the bowl. Their situation is precarious and uncertain. It is difficult not to parallel these scenes with the desperate journeys made by refugees.
The figures in my paintings interact in environments in which they are obviously not comfortable. The atmosphere is charged with a continual sense of imminent but understated action. I endeavour to convey this sense of expectation to the viewer so that they may determine the when, what and why of the action. The allusory network each viewer brings to the work is as important as the contents of the images I place before them.
My art is characterised by ambiguity. I pictorially pose the viewer with a list of unanswered questions (or at least intimate the possibility of questions) and yet find the viewer poses their own.
The world I paint is one that speaks of my Chinese origins and of my current home in both Australia and China. I use ambiguity to assist in the articulation (although full articulation is not a desired outcome) of the individual’s place in a multicultural world.
-Yifeng Tan 2008
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS
2008: Jackman Gallery, Melbourne
2008: Yifeng Tan's New Paintings, Paddington Contemporary, Sydney
2007: Apples Series, Shanghai Art Fair, Shanghai, China
2007: Yifeng Tan’s New Paintings, Prints, Impression on Paper Gallery,
Canberra
2005: China Landscape, Stephanie Burns Fine Art, Canberra
2004: Big Sky, Stephanie Burns Fine Art, Canberra
2003: New Directions, Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
2003: Yifeng Tan’s painting, Stephanie Burns Fine Art, Canberra
2003: Fishermen,Span Gallery, Melbourne
2002: Yifeng Tan’s painting, Michael Carr Art Dealer, Sydney
2003: Collection Room, Stephanie Burns Fine Art, Canberra
2001: Across the Fence, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra.
2000: Across the Fence, Michael Carr Art Dealer, Sydney
2000: Football Field, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
1999: Drawing and Painting, Spiral Arm Gallery, Canberra
1999: In and Out, AAAA Gallery, Sydney
1993: Chinese Brush Painting, Graphix Brasserie, Canberra
1989: Yifeng Tan Solo Art Exhibition, Nanjing, China
1988: Yifeng Tan Solo Art Exhibition, Harbin, China
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008: Southern Skies - Chinese Artists in Australia, Australia Embassy
Beijing, China
2008: Art Warehouse East District Art, Songzhoang, Beijing, China
2008: From Mao To Now, Newlington Art Gallery, Sydney
2007: International Contemporary Art, Front Art Gallery, Beijing, China
2007: Living in Songzhuang. Songzhuang Art Gallery, Beijing, China
2007: Songzhuang Contemporary Art Traveling Exhibition, China
2007: Huan Tie times Art, Beijing, China
2007: Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China
2007: Eastern Modern Art Gallery, Jining, China
2007: Art Gallery of Lu Xun Arts University, Shenyang, China
2006: Sulman Art Prizes, NSW Art Gallery, Sydney
2006: Our Biennale, Michael Carr Art Dealer, Sydney
2006: Art On The Rocks, Rocks, Sydney
AWARDS
2003 Winner of Canberra Art Prize, Oil Painting Award
2001 Awarded Art ACT Grant, Canberra
2000 Awarded Pat Corrigan Artist Grant, NSW
1993 Emerging Artists Support Scheme, The National Recording Studio Group
Award, Canberra
1993: Scholarship, Canberra School of Art, ANU
COLLECTIONS
Beijing Songzhuang Art Gallery; The Australian Prime Minister Hon Kevin
Rudd MP; The Australian Ambassador in Beijing Dr Geoff Raby; Art Bank,
Australia; The Australian National University, Canberra; National Recording
Studio, Canberra; Chun Sun Newspaper, Nanjing, China; Andrew Forrest Family
Collection; Janet Holmes a Court Family Collection; Georgina M Cainegie
Familiy Collection. Private Collections throughout Australia, China, Hong
Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paris, Singapore and USA.
ON THE HIGH WAY
WHICH WAY # 17
WHICH WAY # 5
MY GOLDEN APPLE # 2
MY APPLE # 8
FISHING CLASS # 06
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