YANGYANG PAN: VISIONS OF EDEN

Madelyn Jordon Fine Art is pleased to announce YANGYANG PAN: VISIONS OF EDEN, a solo exhibition of new works by Chinese/Canadian artist YANGYANG PAN.  This exhibition marks the artist"s fifth solo exhibition with MJFA and will be on view from September 11 - October 24, 2020.  The official opening is Saturday, September 12, 2020 from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. 

VISIONS OF EDEN takes a more pointed approach to the abstract landscapes that have defined Pan’s practice for the past 10 years.  In the 12 oil paintings on canvas and linen presented, Pan reveals her inner self to radiate moods, emotional states, and thoughts on painting.  Her works of intense chromatic lyricism are vibrant and visionary, informed by the artist’s deep-seated knowledge of Eastern and Western art history. 

Inspiration for this series comes from a poem by 5^th Century Chinese poet Tao Yuanmin, entitled The Peach Blossom Spring, a fable about a chance discovery of an ethereal perfect world.  Improvising with a range of colors and processes, both the canvas and the artist are transformed and brought to a kind of utopian Eden as these enchanting, lush garden-scapes take shape.  Applying gestural brush strokes intuitively and instinctively, Pan seeks to reinvigorate and reimagine the genre, her aesthetic intention being “the discovery of an unexpectedly lyrical, romantic and poetic world through the language of abstraction.”

Working with no definitive plan and guided by her emotions, Pan leads with color, exploring the range of possibility offered by her paints.  Incorporating tight mark-marking with textured, sharp brushstrokes, the artist paints to the edge of the canvas utilizing a vivid color palette – from sunflower yellows to cobalt blues.  Vacillating between botanical representation and abstraction, the dense compositions and bold repetitive marks synthesize an Eastern interpretation of the Canadian landscape she lives in. 

Pan’s merging of cultures is beautifully encapsulated in Morning Florals.  Utilizing the Chinese Ma-Xia school of painting ‘One Corner" technique, paint is pushed to the edge of the canvas, leaving large areas more or less empty. Here, Pan"s cool white oil paint covers the entire canvas.  Then, working from the center to the top left, she applies exuberant colors of blue, white, brown, black and yellow.  Playing with thick and thin varying strokes of paint, the amorphous forms coalesce into a brilliant, ambient floral landscape.

To Pan, every painting is a new revelation, often with surprisingly unexpected results.  

Born in 1976, Yangyang Pan studied at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute.  Graduating with honors, Pan received her Bachelor of Arts in 1998 followed by a Masters of Fine Art in 2002.  She remained as an instructor until 2006 when she relocated to Canada.  Since 2006, Pan has exhibited internationally, including Canada, USA, Italy and China.  She received the Ontario Arts Council, Visual Artists Creation Projects Grant in 2020 and was awarded the Ontario Arts Council, Exhibition assistant award both in 2010 and 2019.  Her work is widely collected in numerous private and public institutions such as Government of Ontario Art Collection, Apple (USA), Royal Elite International Academy (Canada), The Rochester Museum of Fine Art (USA), The Sichuan Fine Art Institute (China) and retail giants including Holt Renfrew (Canada), Anthropologie (USA), Amour Vert (USA), Vdara Las Vegas, and Provide Commerce (USA).