Biography
Ann Yen is a well-established and talented artist. Her art education started in Shanghai, where she graduated from the Shanghai Drama Academy and worked as a stage and film actress. She then went to New York in 1981 to study filmmaking at New York University and later worked as a producer for National Geographic Television and the Discovery Channel. But painting has always been Ann Yen's passion. During her years in New York, she studied at the renowned Art Students' League. Ann Yen experiences as a performer and filmmaker enriched her artwork with a unique view on life. She has exhibited in New York, Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Her paintings are in private art collections around the world and she has donated much of her income from sales of her artwork to charities. She is the honorary President of the Shanghai American Women's Club. The "Shanghai Lane" series is a unique expression of the artist's cultural background. As a Shanghai native, Ann Yen evokes a sense of nostalgia for the fading past, as represented by the symbolism of housing lanes in Shanghai architecture and society. The execution of the work is bold and modern. The paintings are filled with energy like powerful calligraphy, yet they burst with a vivid color that recalls a western influence. These paintings take the viewer beyond the visual image. One cannot help but wonder what is inside these lanes and behind those doors.
Her critics have acclaimed her work saying, “It is easy to imagine the sound of rain emanating from the ink wash drawings of Ann Yen. Her art, after all, is made from may arcing strokes of brushes that leave ink and water behind every gesture across the paper. Ann draws the rain, draws forth its flowing coursing fluididty. Here a mist, there a downpour, the brush leaves marks that are also inundations; gestures that emerge from, and reiterate, the material conditions of their making,” said Buzz Spector, the Chairman of the Art Department at Cornell University.
Her art, while young has definitely matured with her age. With some influence coming from the time she took to study in the United States and the other from being a child at the end of the Cultural Revoltion, Ann Yen has taken Chinese art to the highest level of accomplishment an artist her age could hope for, and she continues to rise with every new piece.
Main Exhibitions
2000 Group show, Foreign Artists in Beijing, at Wan Fung Art Gallery, Beijing China.
2002 Solo show, Heavenly Creatures, Hong Kong Visual Arts Center.
2003 Solo show, Body and Soul, Kuanghwa Cultural Center, Hong Kong.
2005 Solo show, Paintings by Ann Yen at Open Gallery, Beijing, China.
2006 Charity Art exhibition by Ann Yen, Shanghai, China.
2007 Solo show, Shanghai Lane, Hong Merchant Gallery, Shanghai, China.
Artwork
