Night Studio
Solo show
Kristy M. Chan
Tabula Rasa Gallery | Beijing
15 September - 19 October, 2024
INTERVIEW:
Rising Star Kristy M. Chan: A Gen-Z Chinese Artist Pushing Boundaries in Europe
by ArtChestnut
Solo show
Kristy M. Chan
Tabula Rasa Gallery | Beijing
15 September - 19 October, 2024
INTERVIEW:
Rising Star Kristy M. Chan: A Gen-Z Chinese Artist Pushing Boundaries in Europe
by ArtChestnut
Tabula Rasa Gallery is pleased
to announce the opening of Kristy M. Chan's solo exhibition "Night
Studio" at Tabula Rasa Gallery in Beijing on September 15. The exhibition
invited Evonne Jiawei Yuan as the exhibition curator and to write articles for the exhibition.
Kristy M. Chan (b.1997) creates bold, gestural paintings that translate the wild energy fuelled by emotion to canvas. Through thick, vigorous brushstrokes and intersecting curves, her use of light and shadow reflects not only her evolving ideas on the painting process but also the connections she draws between expressionist abstraction and the global diaspora experience. Her densely layered, textured works often emerge from her exploration of the complexities of "homeland" while navigating diverse cultural landscapes. With a keen eye for her surroundings and everyday details, Chan intricately weaves narratives of displacement into her compositions, infused with a sense of deliberate absurdity and sharp irony.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan moved to London at the age of 16 to pursue formal training in painting and art history. Upon graduating and choosing to pursue a career as an artist, she found herself uninterested in conventional formalist methodologies or the routine of studio-based practice. Instead, she embraced an itinerant lifestyle, traveling and participating in artist residencies, preferring the freedom that comes from creating beyond the confines of professional or geographical boundaries. Her ability to navigate and adapt to fluidity informs her practice, and her omnivorous reading and fragmented experiences of life in various locations feed into her work. This sense of rebellion against conventional approaches is why her abstract paintings exude a spirit of defiance, embodying the vertiginous feeling that comes with confronting a constantly shifting reality.
![]()
For Chan, painting is not about provoking controversy but about showing how movement and change unify disparate elements. Her impulse to create is rooted in sensory experiences-an interest that dates back to childhood, when she moved between Chinese painting classes and flower arrangement workshops, becoming enchanted by the scent of ink mingling with plants. This fascination still excites her today, and it is why many of her works evoke a sense of communion with nature. Sometimes painting outdoors, she taps into these memories to reignite a deep-seated desire. Chan reveres the illusory quality of synesthesia and aims to evoke a similar state of contemplation in her viewers.
Earlier this year, during an artist residency at Dragon Hill in the Mouans-Sartoux region of the French Riviera, Chan sought to capture the poetic and metaphorical characteristics of her improvisational and instinctive practice. Working in a cave-like, sculptural dwelling with curving walls, she chose to paint not in daylight but at night, engaging in a ritualistic process that deepened her connection to the local environment. Revisiting the Dionysian vision of human existence, particularly through acts of revelry, she explored the tension between mind and hand as she approached the canvas. This marked a break from her earlier style of creating negative space through mark-making.
![]()
As a result, Chan's new works from this year, charged with spontaneity, feel more emotionally resonant and immersive. Titles drawn from songs and books hint at personal, intimate themes. Many of these works will be featured in her first solo exhibition in China, Night Studio, at Tabula Rasa Gallery. In several large-scale pieces, she embraces herself to a vibrant palette, often using bright purples and greenish yellows to evoke the taste of ripe fruits and wines in Southern France, which gives an overall sense of irrational exuberance, as if joy and pleasure are triumphing over destruction and chaos. However, the white-washed slashes feature an uncanny feeling that stirs a sense of unease in the viewer.
About the Curator
Evonne Jiawei Yuan is a writer and curator from Shanghai. She graduated from Fudan University with B.A. in Museology, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London with M.A. in History of Art, and the Architectural Association School of Architecture with M.A. in History & Critical Thinking. Recent curations include "By Virtue of Situated Compromise" (ASE Foundation, Shanghai, 2023), "A Tie to All the Earth" (Perrotin in collaboration with teagan:, Beijing, 2023), "Steadfastly Revise For the Standards in Nonproductive Construction (Part I: Solid Molds; Part II: Liquid Circulates)" (Long March Independent Space, Beijing, 2022–23), "Entangled, Ensnared, Entwined – Carol Bove, Hu Xiaoyuan, Alicja Kwade" (Longlati Foundation, Shanghai, 2023), etc. Co-curations include "Friends in the Arts: Exhibition of Chinese Collectors’ New Contemporaries" (TANK, Shanghai, 2023), "New Moroism – Michael Ho, Chris Huen Sin-Kan, Timothy Lai, Su Yu-Xin" (White Cube, Hong Kong, 2023), etc. Current research interests include the architectural media in-and-of contemporary art, (post)modern spatial concepts, border aesthetics and its geopolitics. She was Guest Curator of Longlati Foundation and Head of its Writers’ Acquisition Committee from 2021 to 2023, who led the launching of solo exhibitions "Ma Qiusha: The Mirror(-scape) of Your Skin" (2022), "Laure Prouvost: Theatergarden and A Be(a)stiary of the Anthropocene" (2022), etc. She is also the founder of totalab, an independent curatorial practice in Shanghai, where she curated "Going Viral: Zombies, Pluribiosis, and Love of the Living Dead" with works from the Soil Collection (2022). Earlier this year, she returned to Beijing, where she served as Executive Curator of "One and All: New Artistic Styles of Contemporary Painting" at the National Art Museum of China and Curator of "The Inner Side of the Wind," the Up&Coming Sector of Gallery Weekend Beijing 2024.
About the Artist
Kristy M Chan (b. 1997, Hong Kong) lives and works in London. Chan creates artworks that traverse between figuration and abstraction, resulting in energetic, intuitive, and autobiographical compositions. Departing from surreal and bewildering moments in contemporary life, Chan describes her works as 'stolen realities.' Primarily employing densely applied oil and oil stick, her paintings serve as visual archives of intense personal interactions amid the transient dynamism of the city. Living between Hong Kong and London, Chan incorporates subject matters from an outsider's perspective, contemplating the interplay between her identity influenced by both Eastern and Western cultures. Chan is intrigued by extracting descriptive metaphors from literature and reimagining them in her own unique way.
Kristy M. Chan completed her BFA at UCL Slade School of Fine Art in 2019 and her MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her recent solo exhibitions include: Night Studio, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2024); Molehill Mountaineer, The Cabin (Los Angeles, 2023); Binge, The Artist Room and Simon Lee Gallery (London, 2022); Strong Cookie, Prior Art Space (Berlin, 2022); Totally Not, The Artist Room (London, 2021).
Selected recent group exhibitions include: Untalely, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2023); Bordercrossing, Yuz Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Women in Abstraction, What’s Up/Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2023); Immersed, curated by Jack Siebert, (Los Angeles, 2023); Lightness of Being, KWAI FUNG HIN (Hong Kong, 2023); Tabula Rasa: Unveiled, No.9 Cork Street (London, 2023); The Sky Above the Roof, Tabula Rasa, Beijing (2022); Märchen Brunnen, Haus der Statistik (Berlin, 2022); An Arcadian Kind of Love, Soho Revue (London, 2022); New Romantics, The Artist Room x Phillips, Lee Eugean Gallery (Seoul, 2022); Femme-Ate, Soho Revue, London (2021); Big Soft Illusion, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig (2020); Haam4 Seoi2 Goeng1, Hong Kong Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong (2019).
Chan has also undertaken residencies at Dragon Hill Residence, Mouans-Sartoux, France (2024); Beecher Residency, Connecticut (2023); The Cabin, Los Angeles (2022–2023); Del Arco Residency, Berlin (2022); PILOTENKUECHE, Leipzig (2020); and AiR Frosterus, Finland (2019).
Her works are included in significant private and public collections, including: Danjuma Collection, London; Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins, Mougins, France; Forbes China, Shanghai; Zabludowicz Collection, London; X Museum, Beijing.
Kristy M. Chan (b.1997) creates bold, gestural paintings that translate the wild energy fuelled by emotion to canvas. Through thick, vigorous brushstrokes and intersecting curves, her use of light and shadow reflects not only her evolving ideas on the painting process but also the connections she draws between expressionist abstraction and the global diaspora experience. Her densely layered, textured works often emerge from her exploration of the complexities of "homeland" while navigating diverse cultural landscapes. With a keen eye for her surroundings and everyday details, Chan intricately weaves narratives of displacement into her compositions, infused with a sense of deliberate absurdity and sharp irony.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan moved to London at the age of 16 to pursue formal training in painting and art history. Upon graduating and choosing to pursue a career as an artist, she found herself uninterested in conventional formalist methodologies or the routine of studio-based practice. Instead, she embraced an itinerant lifestyle, traveling and participating in artist residencies, preferring the freedom that comes from creating beyond the confines of professional or geographical boundaries. Her ability to navigate and adapt to fluidity informs her practice, and her omnivorous reading and fragmented experiences of life in various locations feed into her work. This sense of rebellion against conventional approaches is why her abstract paintings exude a spirit of defiance, embodying the vertiginous feeling that comes with confronting a constantly shifting reality.
For Chan, painting is not about provoking controversy but about showing how movement and change unify disparate elements. Her impulse to create is rooted in sensory experiences-an interest that dates back to childhood, when she moved between Chinese painting classes and flower arrangement workshops, becoming enchanted by the scent of ink mingling with plants. This fascination still excites her today, and it is why many of her works evoke a sense of communion with nature. Sometimes painting outdoors, she taps into these memories to reignite a deep-seated desire. Chan reveres the illusory quality of synesthesia and aims to evoke a similar state of contemplation in her viewers.
Earlier this year, during an artist residency at Dragon Hill in the Mouans-Sartoux region of the French Riviera, Chan sought to capture the poetic and metaphorical characteristics of her improvisational and instinctive practice. Working in a cave-like, sculptural dwelling with curving walls, she chose to paint not in daylight but at night, engaging in a ritualistic process that deepened her connection to the local environment. Revisiting the Dionysian vision of human existence, particularly through acts of revelry, she explored the tension between mind and hand as she approached the canvas. This marked a break from her earlier style of creating negative space through mark-making.
As a result, Chan's new works from this year, charged with spontaneity, feel more emotionally resonant and immersive. Titles drawn from songs and books hint at personal, intimate themes. Many of these works will be featured in her first solo exhibition in China, Night Studio, at Tabula Rasa Gallery. In several large-scale pieces, she embraces herself to a vibrant palette, often using bright purples and greenish yellows to evoke the taste of ripe fruits and wines in Southern France, which gives an overall sense of irrational exuberance, as if joy and pleasure are triumphing over destruction and chaos. However, the white-washed slashes feature an uncanny feeling that stirs a sense of unease in the viewer.
About the Curator
Evonne Jiawei Yuan is a writer and curator from Shanghai. She graduated from Fudan University with B.A. in Museology, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London with M.A. in History of Art, and the Architectural Association School of Architecture with M.A. in History & Critical Thinking. Recent curations include "By Virtue of Situated Compromise" (ASE Foundation, Shanghai, 2023), "A Tie to All the Earth" (Perrotin in collaboration with teagan:, Beijing, 2023), "Steadfastly Revise For the Standards in Nonproductive Construction (Part I: Solid Molds; Part II: Liquid Circulates)" (Long March Independent Space, Beijing, 2022–23), "Entangled, Ensnared, Entwined – Carol Bove, Hu Xiaoyuan, Alicja Kwade" (Longlati Foundation, Shanghai, 2023), etc. Co-curations include "Friends in the Arts: Exhibition of Chinese Collectors’ New Contemporaries" (TANK, Shanghai, 2023), "New Moroism – Michael Ho, Chris Huen Sin-Kan, Timothy Lai, Su Yu-Xin" (White Cube, Hong Kong, 2023), etc. Current research interests include the architectural media in-and-of contemporary art, (post)modern spatial concepts, border aesthetics and its geopolitics. She was Guest Curator of Longlati Foundation and Head of its Writers’ Acquisition Committee from 2021 to 2023, who led the launching of solo exhibitions "Ma Qiusha: The Mirror(-scape) of Your Skin" (2022), "Laure Prouvost: Theatergarden and A Be(a)stiary of the Anthropocene" (2022), etc. She is also the founder of totalab, an independent curatorial practice in Shanghai, where she curated "Going Viral: Zombies, Pluribiosis, and Love of the Living Dead" with works from the Soil Collection (2022). Earlier this year, she returned to Beijing, where she served as Executive Curator of "One and All: New Artistic Styles of Contemporary Painting" at the National Art Museum of China and Curator of "The Inner Side of the Wind," the Up&Coming Sector of Gallery Weekend Beijing 2024.
About the Artist
Kristy M Chan (b. 1997, Hong Kong) lives and works in London. Chan creates artworks that traverse between figuration and abstraction, resulting in energetic, intuitive, and autobiographical compositions. Departing from surreal and bewildering moments in contemporary life, Chan describes her works as 'stolen realities.' Primarily employing densely applied oil and oil stick, her paintings serve as visual archives of intense personal interactions amid the transient dynamism of the city. Living between Hong Kong and London, Chan incorporates subject matters from an outsider's perspective, contemplating the interplay between her identity influenced by both Eastern and Western cultures. Chan is intrigued by extracting descriptive metaphors from literature and reimagining them in her own unique way.
Kristy M. Chan completed her BFA at UCL Slade School of Fine Art in 2019 and her MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Her recent solo exhibitions include: Night Studio, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2024); Molehill Mountaineer, The Cabin (Los Angeles, 2023); Binge, The Artist Room and Simon Lee Gallery (London, 2022); Strong Cookie, Prior Art Space (Berlin, 2022); Totally Not, The Artist Room (London, 2021).
Selected recent group exhibitions include: Untalely, Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing, 2023); Bordercrossing, Yuz Museum (Shanghai, 2023); Women in Abstraction, What’s Up/Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 2023); Immersed, curated by Jack Siebert, (Los Angeles, 2023); Lightness of Being, KWAI FUNG HIN (Hong Kong, 2023); Tabula Rasa: Unveiled, No.9 Cork Street (London, 2023); The Sky Above the Roof, Tabula Rasa, Beijing (2022); Märchen Brunnen, Haus der Statistik (Berlin, 2022); An Arcadian Kind of Love, Soho Revue (London, 2022); New Romantics, The Artist Room x Phillips, Lee Eugean Gallery (Seoul, 2022); Femme-Ate, Soho Revue, London (2021); Big Soft Illusion, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig (2020); Haam4 Seoi2 Goeng1, Hong Kong Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong (2019).
Chan has also undertaken residencies at Dragon Hill Residence, Mouans-Sartoux, France (2024); Beecher Residency, Connecticut (2023); The Cabin, Los Angeles (2022–2023); Del Arco Residency, Berlin (2022); PILOTENKUECHE, Leipzig (2020); and AiR Frosterus, Finland (2019).
Her works are included in significant private and public collections, including: Danjuma Collection, London; Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins, Mougins, France; Forbes China, Shanghai; Zabludowicz Collection, London; X Museum, Beijing.
Tabula Rasa Gallery (London)
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
Tuesday - Saturday 12:00 - 18:00 | Sunday - Monday Closed
© 2022 Tabula Rasa Gallery