Artist Statement
My practice spans painting, installation, and performance. I explore how memory lives in the body and how bodily rhythms interact with an environment. Painting helps me understand my changing relationship with myself and the world.
Over the past three years, I have developed two connected series: Dance and the Ancestors and The Dungan Garden. Earlier paintings used twisting forms, intertwined lines, and contrasting colors to release tensions rooted in cultural expectations of women. Colors and gestures also carry memories of my hometown, Guangzhou, ancestral rituals, and everyday life. As my life has gradually changed since leaving my hometown, painting has become freer, more intuitive, and joyful. The rhythmic movement of my body and brush across the canvas is like a dance.
My approach draws on Chinese calligraphy and documentary photography, which taught me to attend to bodily rhythm and observe without controlling everything. In The Dungan Garden, horizontal strokes inspired by lotus leaves on water have become a language of color, movement, and depth. Repetition helps me slow down. Each mark records a particular moment, shaped by pressure, pace, paint, and gravity.
I am now exploring connections between the organic complexity of my earlier paintings and the openness of my recent work. Through this process, I want to deepen the relationships between forms, materials, body, and place while preserving the spontaneity and pleasure of painting.
我的创作涵盖绘画、装置与行为，探索记忆如何留存在身体中，以及身体的节奏如何与环境相互作用。绘画帮助我理解自己与内心、与世界之间不断变化的关系。
过去三年，我发展了两个相互关联的系列：《舞与祖先》和《钝感花园》。早期绘画通过扭转的形态、交织的线条与对比强烈的色彩，释放传统文化对女性的期待所带来的内在张力。色彩与动作也承载着我对家乡广州、祭祖仪式和日常生活的记忆。离开家乡后，随着生活逐渐改变，绘画也变得更加自由、直觉和愉悦。身体与画笔在画布上有节奏地移动像舞蹈。
我的创作方式受到中国书法与纪实摄影的影响，它们让我学会感受身体的节奏，也学会观察，而不过度控制。在《钝感花园》中，最初源于水面荷叶的横向笔触，逐渐成为表达色彩、运动与空间深度的语言。重复让我慢下来。每一道笔触都记录着一个特定的当下，由力度、速度、颜料与重力共同塑造。
如今，我正在探索早期绘画中复杂的有机形态与近期作品的开放感之间的联系。我希望在保留绘画的自发性与快乐的同时，深化形态、材料、身体与场所之间的关系。
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BIO
Yanmei Jiang is a Guangzhou-born, New York–based artist working across painting, installation, performance, and photography. Her practice explores bodily memory and the relationship between gesture, materials, and environment. Her connected painting series, Dance and the Ancestors and The Dungan Garden, trace a shift from the release of internalized cultural tensions toward a freer, more intuitive engagement with color, movement, and rhythm.
Jiang received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2023. She first gained recognition for her photography series Me and Me, which received the Taipei Photo New Talent Award. Her work is held in collections including the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung in Germany and the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum in China.
Recent activities include her solo exhibition A Toe in the Water at the Chinese American Arts Council / 456 Gallery (2025), residencies with AnkhLave Arts Alliance (2025) and Bethany Arts Community (2026), and a grant-supported earth-pigment and slow-painting workshop at the Andy Warhol Preserve through The Nature Conservancy’s Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program (2026).
江演媚出生于广州，现居纽约，创作涵盖绘画、装置、行为与摄影。她的实践关注身体记忆，以及动作、材料与环境之间的关系。相互关联的绘画系列《舞与祖先》和《钝感花园》，呈现了她从释放内化的文化张力，逐渐走向以更自由、直觉的方式探索色彩、运动与节奏的过程。
她于2023年获得纽约视觉艺术学院艺术硕士学位，早期凭借摄影系列《Me and Me》获得关注，并获台北摄影新锐奖。作品被德国 Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung 基金会、成都当代影像馆等机构收藏。
近期经历包括2025年在纽约中美艺术中心／456画廊举办个展《A Toe in the Water》，参加2025年 AnkhLave Arts Alliance 驻地及2026年 Bethany Arts Community 驻地。2026年，她获得大自然保护协会 Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program 的资助，在 Andy Warhol Preserve 主持天然土质颜料制作与慢绘画工作坊。
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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 & GRANTS
2026 Workshop Leader and Grant Recipient, The Nature Conservancy’s 2026 Andy Warhol Visual Arts Program, Andy Warhol Preserve, Montauk, United States
2026 Bethany Arts Community 2026 Multidisciplinary Residency, Ossining, New York, United States
2025 Grand Scale Mural Project, Uptown Grand Central, New York, United States
2025 AnkhLave Residency, Governors Island, New York, United States
2023 ChaShaMa Exhibition Residency, New York, United States
- SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 “A Toe in the Water”, 456 Gallery (Chinese American Arts Council), New York, United States
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, United States
2025 “Blue Line: A Journey of Reawakening” (Performance), AnkhLave Residency, Governors Island, United States
2025 “The Journey”, Hot Water Cool Art Annual Exhibition, New York, United States
2024 “Welcome to the Wonderland”, CP Project Space, New York, United States
2023 “Playground and Dreams”, ChaShaMa Gallery, New York, United States
2023 “Idylls & Reveries”, VillageOneArt Gallery, New York, United States
2023 “Cement, TaiL of A Gecko”, Temple Gallery & Tutu Gallery, New York, United States
2023 “Echo Box”, Latchkey Gallery, New York, United States
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.