Xinyan Wang is a classically trained painter. Over the course of an extensive eleven-year tenure at Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, Wang built a solid foundation in form and color. Daily life drawing sessions not only strengthened her muscle memory for painting but also prompted her to continually contemplate what constitutes the nature of artistic creation.

While attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Wang rekindled her connection with Western art, notably ancient treasures like the Lascaux cave paintings and Pompeian frescoes. Wang was drawn to the profound energy embedded in these canonical moments in Western art history, deepening her fascination with a distinct yet shared devotion to the human spirit, leading her to shed her once-rigid attachment to formal techniques. Wang began to embrace a more candid approach, painting only when she entered the elusive 'flow state,' allowing her intuition to guide her hand and unleash her emotions onto expansive canvases.

Metamorphosis 蜕变 artfully synthesizes the venerable Eastern tradition of line-based stylization with Western modernist precepts pertaining to imagery and abstraction. Discernible within her work are fragments of historical masterpieces, including the Dunhuang murals and the Altamira Cave bison. These historical references are magnified by Wang's meticulous deployment of earth-toned mineral pigments, which establish a resonant connection with the primal energies inherent in nature. Her virtuoso command over color imparts a rhythmic cadence to her compositions.

Inspired by Gilles Deleuze's "The Logic of Sensation," which probes the antecedent sketches that precede the act of painting, Wang's oeuvre emerges from an ostensibly chaotic bedrock of sketches. Over time, these sketches are subjected to continuous reevaluation and reconstitution, eventually to be transposed onto the canvas. The recurrent motif of feline subjects adorning her works endows them with an air of graceful dynamism, representing a microcosm of her profound emotional connection to the manifold facets of the world. Wang Xinyan's work signifies a genuine liberation of inner artistic perception, with each piece reflecting Wang's unflagging pursuit of transcendence—a metaphoric metamorphosis cultivated through over a decade of artistic exploration.

Text by Zhiheng Ashely Zhang

Xinyan Wang (b. 1995, Beijing) lives and works in Chicago. Xinyan Wang obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2017 from China Central Academy of Fine Arts in the Oil Painting Department, during that time exchange studied in Zurich ZHdK in the New Media department. She earned a Master of Arts in Fourth Studio of Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2020. She is currently pursuing her second Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Drawing department. Recent exhibitions include Metamorphosis 蜕变 王鑫焱, Nicodim Upstairs, Los Angeles (2023, solo); Feeling Without Touching, Nicodim, New York (2023); Wang Xinyan: Archaeology of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Digital Age, Freize London, Asia House (2019); On Innocence in Ancient Times, China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2018); In addition, her work has also been exhibited and collected by The Chile National Museum and Panama Museum of Contemporary.