Wow ! A bitter sweet candy! Do you wanna taste it? You knew it, didn’t you? Let me introduce you one of my first Chinese contemporary art crush. On the red brick wall of the 798, the Beijing hugh factory of Chinese contemporary art (next article) : a colourful poster of a young and lovely girl that strikes the pose in an acid pink background. Between Manga and trendy magazines, the style of the painting is very simple and childish. Yeah, a sweet pink candie, with a bit of lemon!Few days later : I meet Yangfan. Boy or girl? The painter doesn’t speak English and I don’t understand Mandarin: lost in translation? Fortunately, there is the blessed Jenny, the Linda Gallery assistant where Yangfan exhibits. Thanks Jen!
You got it baby ! Yangfan is a girl. And she paints girls. A light “Sex in the city” influence: in girl speech, girls talk about girls as well speaking to everybody. In the gallery, men look at the paintings carefully. The refined Yangfan shows the sensitive part of those girls. They are beautiful, look like innocent and hype, but they miss life. Her message: describing those fashion girls. They became one of today Chinese society symbols.
– Today, there is a lack of spirituality, we let spiritual things.
Her painting expresses a kind of depressive feeling, between soulful sadness, happiness and questions about life:
– Those girls have more freedom, but it happened very quickly and now they are single and alone.
Yangfan’s painted for ten years and she is also a university professor of painting:
– After school, I was wondering how to become an artist? And at this time, I had the idea to pay attention of the last generations of women and their future.
The way she works : daytime for painting and nights to look at people, their way to talk, move, their clothes.
– I imagine their work and I create short fashion stories. I’m also a fashion designer for fun.Besides the clothes of her depressive smooth characters came from her imagination.
The future: always painting. Cotton sculptures, of girls course. And for next year, unique dolls with Chinese traditional details for a gallery exhibition. Finally sometimes, trendy girls can live something else than “a vain solo life”. The proof, the successful Yangfan is not single and not alone.
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