Yuan Fang “Stratospheres”

Half Gallery

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“I see my canvases as a metaphor for the human condition: feelings of anxiety, turbulence and unpredictability. I love the gesture of compressing passages in my paintings on to such a flat surface. For me the act of painting helps relieve my own anxiety, too.”

Yuan Fang describes her compositions as appendages or tentacles in motion, but in person there’s something almost geological about them. Details feel like painted striations, evidence of wind and water erosion. Her pictures have their own gravity. Lee Krasner once said “I like the canvas to breathe and be alive,” a sentiment clearly externalized in Yuan’s latest series. The palette is energized without being electric, while the fluidity of her line echoes 90s Sue Williams — that same unbottled enthusiasm.

“I believe the reason why my paintings barely contain any straight lines is that subconsciously curves imitate the female body so yes, I accept it when people try to find the femininity in my works.”

Yuan Fang (b.1996, Shenzhen, China) graduated from the MFA Fine Arts Program at School of Visual Arts with the Rhodes Family Award for Outstanding Achievement. Fang’s work was recently acquired by the ICA Miami. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Prince & Wooster, New York; Bill Brady Gallery, Los Angeles and ATM Gallery, New York. She has participated in group exhibitions at Stems Gallery, Brussels and COMA Gallery, Sydney, among others. Fang lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.