Fou is an apartment gallery and creative lab based in Brooklyn, New York. From February 15th through March 13th, one of collaborating artist with Fou Gallery, Lin Yan's solo show Dispelling the Clouds is on view at Tenri Culture Institute. Curated by Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos and Michelle Y. Loh, it is comprised of the artist’s site specific installations and 5 ink drawings. At the same time, Fou Gallery will exhibit 6 small works by the artist.
Lin’s Dispelling the Clouds project has to do with the devastation wrought upon the environment by the rapid commercialization and industrialization after the opening up of China. There has been evidence of climatic changes along with the extinction of many species and ocean acidification as well as environmental degradation impacting its citizens’ health affecting air quality, sick building syndrome, pesticide drifts, and electromagnetic radiation especially in Beijing. Air pollution is among the most important crises on an epic scale beyond measurable scales.
Lin’s installation in the main gallery Inhale is comprised of ink drawings on Xuan paper and will be installed between the ceiling and top portion wall area. The bird image is reminiscent of flight, in its ethereal, cloudlike appearance and is lit from beneath to seem like a soft cloudy day. In the front area of Tenri, Lin has created a site specific piece Exhale that is also made of paper but that is simultaneously light and airy as it is imposing to the viewer in its curtain-like quality. Containing ink dashes and touches, its historic allusions are to calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. Xuan paper has a long history having been invented in China in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907AD). Lin incorporates these historical elements into her post-modernist works that are made specifically for the environment and that cross the borders between fine arts and calligraphy.
Rather than caving in like many others because of her mother country’s problems, Lin chooses to offer hope with a light airy environment that although through its inky touches, references China’s environmental devastation, also reflects a brighter future and a new life being nurtured.
Lin Yan 林延 (b. 1961, Beijing) based in Brooklyn, New York. Lin is from a third generation artist family to study abroad. Having graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (1984), she continued her studies at the L’Ecole National Superieur des Beaux Arts in Paris (1986). Moreover, she earned her M.A. from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania (1989). Lin has exhibited internationally at such prestigious venues as The Museum of the Chinese in America (New York), The National Art Museum in China (Beijing), Shanghai MOCA and the Dresden State Art Collection in Germany. Her recent shows include: Lin Yan - Embracing Stillness, Prow Art Space, Flatiron Building, New York (2013) and New York Beijing,Here There, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing (2013). Her works have been included in the public art collections of the National Art Museum of China, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum and Deutsche Bank, etc.
Courtesy of the artist and Fou Gallery, for further information please visit http://fougallery.com.
