Yan Kong

Biography

Yan is a London-based artist specialising in painting and sculpture, with a focus on Marxist aesthetics, postcolonial cultural studies, and contemporary Chinese painting. His work explores how landscape painting can be used to critically reflect on personal artistic practice while engaging with state ideology. Yan aims to redefine the concept of artistic autonomy within the Chinese context by examining the evolving relationship between contemporary artistic creation and personal cultural identity under the framework of socialist realism.

The hybridisation of Chinese and Western art has placed China in a postcolonial predicament, this challenge that influences the thinking and creative approaches of many artists trained in the socialist realist tradition. Yan seeks to propose a framework for understanding and redefining Chinese socialist realist aesthetics with the unique cultural-political background of China in a postcolonial context and exploring the distinctive significance of Chinese socialist landscape painting in contemporary artistic practice.

Solo Exhibitions:
2022 M Space, "Dream Night," Xi’an, China

Group Exhibitions:
2023
Camberwell Space, “Art Show 2023”, London, UK
Filet Gallery, “Forces of the Small”, London, UK
Bargehouse, “Reflection”, London, UK
M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery, "Rush to the Wilderness," London, UK
2022
Western Art Gallery, Figure and Form III Exhibition — Plaster Still Life Exhibition, Xi’an, China
Western Art Gallery, 2022 Graduates' Supervisor Recommendation Award, Xi’an, China
Xi'an Art Gallery, “Neo-Scholasticism”, Xi’an, China
Western Art Gallery B block, “Promote Beauty, Uphold Integrity”, Xi’an, China
2018
West Gallery ”Time Mark 2018, Excellent Work Collection of Graduates“, Xi’an, China
2016
West Gallery “Time Mark 2016, Open XAFA”, Xi’an, China