ZIFAN WANG

WRITTEN BY DANIELLE COOKE

Zifan Wang understands her works as visual poems. She interacts with the canvas in large sweeping movements to create brilliant fields of color. The oil paint dances and dribbles about once applied, taking on a life of its own as she instructs bright color and brushstrokes to converse amongst themselves and utter their truths. This abstract poetry is the manifestation of the artist’s psyche – small spaces buried deep within Wang's mind that are translated and amplified onto her canvases. In this way, Wang engages in a visual translation of the intangible, and her large captivating works illustrate the greatness of these subtle inner workings. She is overall a poet, interpreter and artist. Despite the wealth of richly colored abstract paintings that Wang produces, she keeps no sketchbook and relies directly on her materials to light a path in an improvisational and interactive process of making. Wang allows the material to guide her, acting as a blueprint upon which the whispers of her mind might be placed. Consequently, there are no traces of the work’s development beyond those found on the canvas itself. Wang mixes color directly on the surface, and the heavy application of yellow, red, and blue pays homage to the admirable qualities of the hues and their communicative properties.

Each of Wang’s paintings are largely informed by reflection and the careful application of afterthoughts gleaned from her past works. Her canvases stand as individual and complete, but they engage in playful conversation with one other. The artist’s preoccupation with a materially informed process of making means that she is constantly re-evaluating and shifting her technique in response to previous works

WANG ALLOWS THE MATERIAL TO GUIDE HER, ACTING AS A BLUEPRINT UPON WHICH THE WHISPERS OF HER MIND MIGHT BE PLACED.

LISTEN (detail, above)

LISTEN (detail, following page)