Influenced by minimalist art, Lin Yan’s work also reflects traditional Chinese art theory in the way that she seeks the simplest elements to express herself. Though she has never practiced traditional Chinese art, for the past ten years she has used Chinese art materials, primarily rice paper and ink, as a way to develop her own voice. Her own memories and interest in cultural history transcend geographic and cultural boundaries. For example, the flowers in the Companion series are drawn from memories of her grandmother’s garden. This haunting image first appears totally black, but the careful viewer will see abundant vines rendered in a vibrant and bold manner with dark pencil and lighter pastel on a black ground.

Lin Yan comes from a family of highly respected painters. She studied at the conservative Central Academy of Fine Art, Bejing China, in the early 1980’s, when the training focused on classical Western art and abstraction was forbidden. Through her family and her own curiosity she was exposed to Modernism and experimented outside of school. Living in New York for the past few years she notes that she is not a Chinese artist, nor is she an expatriate or Asian American, but “someone creatively indeterminate.” She studied at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris France, and earned a MA in Studio Art from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg PA. She recently had a solo exhibition at China 2000 Fine Art, New York, NY, and her work was included in Brooklyn, Westport Art Center, Westport, CT; New Chinese Occidentalism – Chinese Contemporary Art in New York, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, NY; Three Generations of Chinese Modernism which traveled to the National Museum of Art, Beijing, China.