Lin Yan, Brick by Brick, 2008, Chinese paper, ink and plexiglass

ChinaSquare Gallery is pleased to announce Lin Yan 林延 : Remaking. Opening Thursday, February 5th, the solo show features new work from Lin Yan's Remaking series, all inspired by the words of President Barack Obama. Her most recent works, "Remaking", "This Nation", "Brick by Brick", "In and Out," made of Chinese paper, ink, wax and wood, juxtapose materials from her birth place of Beijing with her current home of New York. While traditional Chinese painting materials (paper and ink) are the foundation of her work, the crumbled layers of soft, handmade paper create a paradoxical post-industrial feeling. Examining and reflecting on the ramifications of China's rush to modernity, she balances restlessness with the tranquility of her materials. Her work investigates the relationship between Chinese traditional painting and modernist abstraction, as well as that between postmodern appropriation and ancient technical rigor, encomppassing memory, time and history.

"And above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."
- Barack Obama

Lin Yan, born in Beijing to a family of distinguished artists, is a graduate of The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Among the first wave of Chinese students to study abroad as China opened its doors, Lin studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before coming to United States in 1986. Exhibited and collected by museums worldwide, her work has received much acclaim from Art in America, Art News, Art AsiaPacific, The New York Times and will be shown in a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Feb. 5 - Aug. 10, 2010. Remaking will run through February 28th and a fully illustrated brochure accompanies the exhibition.

Lin Yan, This Nation, 2008, Chinese paper, ink and plexiglass