We recently connected with Yan Wang and have shared our conversation below.

Yan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Around a year and a half ago, I started on this narrative that has long nested my mind, a story about a village girl, and her journey of womanhood with the background of one-child policy that had been applied in China for several decades.

Based off my experiences in printmaking, I decided to not just make this project on paper, but to make an animated work, better telling the narration; in addition, I wanted to take advantage of the unique textures I can acquire from physical prints, to compose this frame-by-frame animated project entirely from monopirnts and collages on paper.

I also applied simple musical effect with voice-over narration in the background, to better convey the information the project carries. It is a story about coming to age women, their right to fertility, and many lives that has been torn apart under the tyranny of the time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Yan Wang, a visual artist specialized in printmaking, born and raised in Beijing, China. Coming to the States alone for college level art education, I have since been around for a few years, keeping my practice active in Baltimore and New York. I’ve also taken my time to work in the industry in Beijing and Shanghai.

Ever since I first jumped into the rabbit hole of printmaking, I’ve been reaching my hands out to as many crafts, not only within the scope of different printing methods, but also in the fields of ceramics and animations. Exploring and Experimenting is the key to my inspiration, and without constantly stepping out of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t have the fuel to overcome each and every artistic challenges on the way.

I have created works that consists of editioned screenprints, physical posters, editions of artist books, and animated projects that has participated in several film festival and events. Along with my personal artworks, I’ve been working and teaching crafts in both printmaking and ceramic studios, participated in commercial production of porcelain-wares, sharing my understandings of crafts to the audiences as I can.

Social justice and woman’s rights are common themes of my works, because I believe that visual art is a language, as an artist, I have the ability to communicate what I value to the audiences, and I’m grateful to do so. Growing up as a Chinese woman, I hope my art can represent and advocate for issues we have faced, difficulties of being, and more attention to the neglected history of asian womanhood.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

To me, the intention of becoming an artist came along with the journey of settling myself into an entirely different social ecosystem.

I first came to live and study in the US when I just turned 18, and as I landed, I soon realized that the way people communicate here is not as I imagined, or used to at all. Coming from an East Asian background, there were many things told differently to a child; I’ve always learned to step back when conflicts arise, to consider passing opportunities down to others as to be polite, to question myself first when attempt fails, or to be resilient, in a way that absolute independence will win me back affirmation of being a “enough” woman. However, here I realized that I need to be advocate of what I want, even when I’m not 100% sure I can do it, I need to win myself the opportunity to try.
I realized that to advance my works, I will have to learn how to ask for help.

It was like turning myself back to a child, reassessing my actions and the views I got from my performances. I learned that a man is not an island; The community is there to support, not to question me and my progress.

I used to be someone who never dares to show unfinished work to others, just to avoid any possible judgement. It was also because of that, I struggle on improving my works further. It was a hard lesson unlearn trying to overcome self-shaming and learn to trust others, and at the same time knowing that, this is not to make myself less independent or less capable.

Different art mediums have different qualities, however I know that many are based off the communities we are in. For example, printmaking is a field that largely rely on communities and open studio spaces, and the world consists of master printers, creatives, space owners and managers, each one of us take important role in the operation of creating amazing works, validating and expanding the market of printmaking to bigger audiences, and to make embossment in the history of art.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

There will always be moments that, after you finally got to know something that’s tremendously helpful, you think: what took me this long! I could have known long before. But you also know that fact that you couldn’t :) I’ve had this kind of moments many times in my journey exploring art-making and how to become an artist.

One thing I find super helpful is the community, for me specifically, the printmaking community. After relocating after college, there has been time I struggled figuring out how to make works on my own, away from the studios and help from school and peers. First step I took is to sort out all the tools I have: a hand press, a set of screen and squeegee, inks, papers, carving knives, etc. Then I realized that, having all the physical tools is simply not sufficient for an environment of making art. Something is lacking, I felt so alone. What followed was aimless searching online. I looked for residencies, studio spaces, works, and all that can tie me to other art-related space in the new city. Then, I found a community-based studio space in Brooklyn, Shoestring press, not too hard to get to from my place.

At shoestring I got to know printmakers of various ages, and observe how they make and treat their art according to their life stages and personal style. It has been super inspiring just working in one space with them, taking care of each other’s works and the space together. I also got access to lithography and intaglio, which are printmaking methods more difficult to achieve at home. It’s hard to deny that inspirations, a lot of the times, come from observing other artists, and just being with them, rethinking and looking inward to evaluate where I place myself as an artist.

I would say my experience working in galleries also played a key role, helping me understand this world of art. Getting my hands onto artworks as a curation assistant or a gallerist definitely gained me different insights, pulling me out of the role of another artist. This type of work is an important resource for artists to know how the market works, how mediums, styles, and scales all matter to sell one’s works, and how to navigate future career. Yes, artist is a career, not a concept as younger I and many would imagine! ;)

Contact Info:

• Website: wangyan30.art
• Instagram: awyart