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ISSN 1460-8537 YUAN FANG by Olivia Sand


Over the course of the past 10 years, the artist Yuan Fang (b 1996, China) has led a fast-paced life, completing art school, building up her practice, and establishing herself as one of the most interesting artists of her generation. Following a solo exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai, she has been catching the attention of the art world and has been singled out to be part of the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2024 list. In a short period of time, Yuan Fang has come to build her own vocabulary based on colourful curves that intertwine on the canvas, representing the chaotic state of our world. Having created her own calligraphy, her elaborate paintings convey both movement and speed, matching the artist’s drive to take on the idea of abstraction with all its challenges. In the following interview, we follow


Yuan Fang on her artistic journey that although already remarkable is bound to produce more illuminating experiences.


WATCH Yuan Fang painting in her studio


Asian Art Newspaper: You have just finished a residency in New York two months ago. Was it a positive experience? Yuan Fang: Te residency is called Silver Art Projects – a one-year residency for artists in Lower Manhattan – and it is free. Silverstein is a property development company that has been rebuilding the entire World Trade Center complex. With the floor they own at 4 World Trade Center, they decided to allocate it to artists instead of renting it out as office space. So, we had the studio free for a year, which was fantastic. Before starting the residency, I was working out of my studio in Brooklyn, where it is quieter. I feel it makes a considerable difference coming into the city every day, commuting like someone who has a regular job in the financial district. I like the energy the city brings to my practice.


I feel curvy shapes or


lines represent female bodies or desires


Yuan Fang in her studio. Photo: © Frenel Morris NEWS IN BRIEF


the Aedes exhibition Tu Mu: Young Architecture from China, which introduced the first generation of independent Chinese architects to the international stage. Since then, Liu Jiakun has had a significant impact on contemporary Chinese architectural culture. His projects, including museums, cultural centres, and the large-scale urban mixed-use development West Village in Chengdu, which also serves as an exemplary model for Western urban strategies, have garnered attention far beyond China’s borders. In 2017, Aedes Architecture


Forum held a solo exhibition Now and Here – Chengdu, dedicated to Liu Jiakun’s work, who has built exclusively in his home country to date. Te exhibition highlighted his thoughtful approach to blending traditional Chinese building principles with Western influences.


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NEW MUSEUM FOR XIAN, CHINA A new museum displaying cultural relics unearthed during different phases of the construction of Xian Xianyang International Airport opened to the public in February. Located in Shaanxi province, it is the largest air transportation hub in northwest China. Between June 2020 and October


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ASIAN ART | APRIL 2025 |


2022, during the third-phase expansion of the airport, 6,848 ancient cultural relic sites were discovered, including 4,093 ancient tombs and 2,755 sites such as pottery kilns, ash pits, enclosures, and roads, and over 22,000 artefacts were


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unearthed during the process. Te city is a renowned tourist destination, home to the Terracotta Warriors, and other historic sites such as the Wild Goose Pagoda and the ancient bell tower.


SINGAPORE ART BIENNALE Singapore Art Museum (SAM) has announced the return of the Singapore Biennale (SB2025) from 31 October to 29 March 2026. Organised by SAM, the 8th edition of the biennale is held in conjunction with the celebration of Singapore’s 60th year of independence, presenting contemporary art in multiple venues and public spaces across Singapore.


LG GUGGENHEIM AWARD, NEW YORK South Korean artist Ayoung Kim was announced as the recipient of the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award, which recognises artists who have made pioneering contributions to the field. Te prize was conceived as part of the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative – a five-year collaboration focused on supporting artists who work at the intersection of art and technology. In her research-based practice,


Kim investigates topical issues in contemporary society, particularly the ethical and emotional implications of living in a technology-driven world. While her work spans performance, printmaking, and sculpture, Kim predominantly employs emerging


asianartnewspaper |


technologies – such as AI, virtual reality, and game simulation – to craft immersive fantasy worlds skilfully interwoven with her research on ancient cosmologies and forgotten technologies, thus forming narratives that transcend time, space, or culture. Kim’s work is currently on show at


the Hamburger Bahnhof in Germany. Many Worlds Over deals with artificial intelligence, videos, game simulations, sculptures, and references from South Korean webcomics, where the artist creates a fictional universe governed by its own laws of time and space. Kim’s Delivery Dancer universe is


made up of an infinite number of possible worlds, where time flows cyclically rather than linearly. Te mirrored exhibition space enhances the feeling of overlapping worlds, where the viewers are constantly confronted with themselves. Te audience is immersed in Kim’s virtual world in which she transports into the mirrored museum space. Visitors are both spectators and participants, influencing the narrative from their own perspective.


ANTIQUES RETURNED TO NEPAL Te Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L Bragg, Jr, announced in March the return of 20 antiquities collectively valued at more than $3 million to the people of Nepal. Key pieces include a portrait of the military governor Gaganshim Bharo


Asian Art Newspaper


with His Wives, a pigment and gold on cotton painting in the form of a paubha (religious painting) dated to 1450-74, a 9th-century stone figure of the Buddha Sakyamuni from Bungamati, and a figure of the Hindu goddess Parvati or Lakshmi, taken from the Vishnu Devi temple complex in Kathmandu. Te Art Institute of Chicago has


also announced a work from their collection is to return to Nepal – Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda. As part of continuous and ongoing research into the provenance of its collection, the Art Institute discovered new details about the sculpture’s history and shared this information with the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, DC .Working together, the Art Institute and the Government of Nepal agreed the sculpture had been stolen from Guita Bahi in the Kathmandu Valley and collectively decided on its return to Nepal.


NEW RESEARCH, SILLA KINGDOM A decade-long investigation by Korea Heritage Service has pinpointed a key Silla (57 BC-AD 935) palace site, Korea’s heritage agency announced in February, revealing the latest findings on the kingdom. According to the new findings, Donggung, the palace home to the Silla crown prince, sat east of the pond called Wolji, not west as previously thought. Evidence was gathered on-site in Gyeongju, the city in North Gyeongsang province that served as Silla’s capital.


AAN: You embarked on an artistic career shortly after arriving in the US. What led you to change your path from business to art? YF: Both of my parents work in finance in Shenzhen. Consequently, once I graduated from college, they expected me to be in the financial world, too, or at least study computer science and join a company like Google. Tey wanted me to go to college in the US, preferably to an Ivy League. Tis is the reason why


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