Artist Statement
My practice treats painting not as representation, but as a form of release guided by the body. Through a “body as archive” framework, I explore how memory and sensation are transformed into visual language, contributing to conversations around embodiment and materiality in contemporary painting.
These experiences live in the body as muscle memory. I translate them through whole-body mark-making, where repetition becomes a ritual and color emerges from lived sensation. South Chinese festival reds surface through layered atmospheres, carrying both memory and emotion.
Working primarily with acrylic and oil on large-scale canvases, I build textured, shifting surfaces that evoke landscapes and memories. Earth pigments and expanded material exploration are ongoing and future directions of my practice. Colors remain distinct yet interwoven, forming environments shaped by displacement and lived experience, offering ways of seeing and feeling through the body.
我的创作并不将绘画视为再现，而是作为一种由身体引导的释放方式。通过“身体作为档案”的框架，我探索记忆与感受如何转化为视觉语言，并参与当代绘画中关于具身性与物质性的讨论。
这些经验以肌肉记忆的形式存在于身体之中。我通过全身性的笔触书写进行转译，在其中重复成为一种仪式，而色彩则源于真实的感知经验。中国南方节庆中的红色在层层叠加的氛围中浮现，承载着记忆与情感。
我主要使用丙烯与油画在大尺幅画布上进行创作，构建具有肌理与流动性的画面结构，使其在某种意义上呼应风景与记忆的状态。土质矿物颜料与更进一步的材料探索，是我正在进行及未来发展的方向。色彩在保持各自独立性的同时彼此交织，形成由位移与经验所生成的环境，并通过身体开启观看与感知的方式。
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BIO
Yanmei Jiang is a New York–based painter born in Guangzhou, China. Her practice explores the concept of the “body as archive,” developing embodied memory through large-scale abstract painting rooted in muscle memory. She creates flowing, interwoven surfaces in which color remains distinct yet relational, where displacement and environmental experience generate new ways of seeing and sensing.
She received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2023. Jiang first gained recognition for her photography series Me and Me, which received the Taipei Photo New Talent Award and is included in collections such as the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation (Germany) and the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum (China).
Since transitioning to painting in 2021, her recent highlights include a 2025 solo exhibition at the Chinese American Arts Council / 456 Gallery in New York and a residency at AnkhLave Arts Alliance on Governors Island.
江演媚是一位常驻纽约的画家，出生于中国广州。她的创作以“身体作为档案”为核心概念，通过基于肌肉记忆的大尺幅抽象绘画，发展具身性的记忆表达。她构建出流动且交织的画面结构，使色彩在保持各自独立性的同时形成相互关联，在位移与环境经验的作用下生成新的观看与感知方式。
她于2023年获得纽约视觉艺术学院（School of Visual Arts）艺术硕士学位。演媚最初以摄影系列《Me and Me》获得关注，该系列曾获得台北摄影新锐奖，并被德国Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung基金会及中国成都当代影像馆等机构收藏。
自2021年转向绘画以来，她的近期重要项目包括2025年于纽约中美艺术中心 / 456画廊举办的个展，以及在Governors Island的AnkhLave Arts Alliance驻留项目。
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CV
- EDUCATION
2023 MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
2010 BA in Journalism, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
- RESIDENCIES & PROJECTS
2025 Grand Scale Mural Project, Uptown Grand Central, New York, NY
2025 AnkhLave Residency, Governors Island, New York, NY
2023 ChaShaMa Exhibition Residency, New York, NY
- SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 “A Toe in the Water”, 456 Gallery (Chinese American Arts Council), New York, NY
2017 “Me and Me”, Ray Art Center, Shanghai, China
2016 “Me and Me”, 12th Lianzhou International Photo Festival, Lianzhou, China
- SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Echoes of Home: Egypt Edition (Off Biennale), Darb 1718, Cairo, Egypt
2025 “Anything Goes”, Bushwick Open Studios, Brooklyn, NY
2025 “Blue Line: A Journey of Reawakening” (Performance), AnkhLave Residency, Governors Island, NY
2025 “The Journey”, Hot Water Cool Art Annual Exhibition, New York, NY
2024 “Welcome to the Wonderland”, CP Project Space, New York, NY
2023 “Playground and Dreams”, ChaShaMa Gallery, New York, NY
2023 “Idylls & Reveries”, VillageOneArt Gallery, New York, NY
2023 “Cement, TaiL of A Gecko”, Temple Gallery & Tutu Gallery, New York, NY
2023 “Echo Box”, Latchkey Gallery, New York, NY
2023 “Stockwell Collective Show”, Boston, MA
2021 “Wild Horses”, Sim Smith Gallery, London, UK
2018 17th DongGang International Photo Festival, DongGang, South Korea
2017 “The Port and the Image”, China Port Museum, Ningbo, China
2017 “La Maison de Z: Made In China”, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France
2016 8th Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition, Three Shadows Art Centre, Beijing, China
2016 8th Fotobook Festival Kassel, Kassel, Germany (traveled to Beijing, China)
2016 Taipei Photo Festival, Taipei, Taiwan China
2015 Xitek EOS New Talent Award Exhibition, Beijing, China
2015 “CONNECT”, LensCulture Network Exhibition (Online)
2015 “@Daily Snapshot”, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China
2013 Volume: Birmingham’s Art, Book, & Print Fair, Birmingham, UK
2013 “From Print to Publishing*, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK
2012 Times Museum Community Art Festival, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
- AWARDS & HONORS
2016 Emerging Talent Award, Taipei Photo Festival, Taiwan
2016 Shortlist, Dummy Award Kassel, Germany
2016 Shortlist, Three Shadows Photography Award, China
2015 Winner, Xitek EOS New Talent Award, China
- PUBLICATIONS
2021 “ABOUT US: Young Photography in China”, Hirmer Publishers, Munich. ISBN: 978-3-7774-3656-2
2017 “The Port and The Image: Documenting China’s Harbor Cities”, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House. ISBN: 978-7-5535-0889-4
2017 “Enning” (Self-published photobook with Wenjun Chen)
- COLLECTIONS
Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung Foundation, Munich, Germany
Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum, Chengdu, China
- LECTURES & WORKSHOPS
2013 Mentor, Photography Book Workshop, Lishui International Photography Festival, China
2013 Mentor, Handmade Book Workshop, Fei Gallery, Guangzhou, China
2012 Mentor, Self-publishing Book Workshop, Times Museum Community Art Festival, China
- SELECTED PRESS / BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 CanvasRebel Magazine, “Meet Yanmei Jiang,” Feature Interview.
2022 The Brooklyn Rail, Exhibition Review, New York.
2021 LensCulture, “Feature: Yanmei Jiang’s Photography and Abstract Approach,” Digital Publication.
2020 VICE China, “Artist Interview: Breaking the Boundaries Between Documentary and Abstraction,” Digital Feature.
2018 IMA Magazine (Japan), “Selected New Voices in Contemporary Photography,” Print Publication.
2017 IGNANT (Germany), Feature Presentation of Me and Me Series.
2017 The Eye of Photography (France/USA), “The delicate, handmade photobooks of Wenjun Chen, Yanmei Jiang, and Du Bao Ni”.
2017 Portrait Magazine (人物), “The Gaze of the New Generation: Yanmei Jiang,” Feature Article.
2016 Marie Claire (China), “Art and Identity: Emerging Female Artists,” Feature Interview.
2015 The Paper (澎湃新闻), Feature Profile and Artwork Review.