Jiatong Yuan
Born 1994, China
Artist Statement
I approach painting as a living process rather than a representational image. My work emerges through the continuous interaction of matter, time, and the body.
My creative process begins by soaking specially prepared canvases, allowing pigment to seep into surfaces that appear flat yet possess physical depth, creating a compressed pictorial space. This forms the foundation of the painting, with colour acting as its initial energy and entrance door.
Over extended drying periods, the canvas undergoes continuous processes of absorption, penetration, and sedimentation, during which I intervene only occasionally. I then respond to what has emerged through brushstrokes shaped by rhythm, pressure, duration, and varying densities, guiding and shaping forms as they continue to unfold. As a result, each painting evolves without a predetermined formula. The canvas is not merely a support but an active participant in the painting's becoming.
My work draws on the growth patterns of plants, microbiological processes, and everyday experience. Long-walk, sounds, and observation cultivate the embodied awareness that informs my practice.
Brushwork and ink principles in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy have shaped my understanding of gesture far more than the depiction of appearances. For that, gesture emerges from thought, breath, and inner attention. The movement of the wrist brings greater stillness to the body, allowing weight, rhythm, and touch to register on the painting's surface.
The surface of the work continuously shifts between presence and disappearance, stability and uncertainty. It carries a sense of care, permeability, and openness. In this way, painting resembles the environments we inhabit: porous, adaptive, and constantly evolving.
CV
Exhibition
Solo
2026
30th April - 4th May, Irritation and Flow, Kira Streletzki, Berlin, Germany
Group
2026
17th July - 8th August, London Writes Itself, LBF Contemporary, London, UK
18th - 21th June, RCA degree show, London
4th - 10th May, Soft Witness:50 Stories of Us, Roha Gallery, London, UK
20th March – 25th April, The Drunken Boat, Haricot Gallery, London, UK
3rd January - 7th February, She is a tree, Small Gallery, London, UK
2025
18th September – 22nd March, MYO Kings Cross, Hurst Contemporary & A Space For Art, London, UK
19th February – 22nd March, Daphne's Daughters, Trio Show, Mey Gallery, Los Angeles, US
2024
18th – 21st October, In Days of Heatwave II: Among the Hydrocommons, Safehouse 2, London, UK
28th September – 2nd November Symbiont: Collective Threads of Ecological Study, HYPHA Studios, London, UK
12th September – 24th October I Am Rooted, but I Flow, Mey Gallery, Los Angeles, US
12th – 16th July, Goldsmiths Art and Ecology Degree Show, Richard Hoggart Building, London, UK
2014–2015
Annual College Outstanding Works Exhibition, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts Museum, China
Publication
2025 Soft Witness: 50 Artists, 50 Stories (ISBN: 978-1068293009)
2024 "Tomorrow is a Lie", Journal of Art and Ecology, Vol. 3 (ISSN 2977-0602)
2024 Zine: In Days of Heatwave II: Among the Hydrocommons
Award
2025 Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award
Museum Collection
the FAMM museum
Press
vogue.it/article/berlino-guida-arte-contemporanea
Education
2025-2026 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2023-2024 MA Art and Ecology, the Goldsmiths, University of London, Distinction
2012-2016 BA Photography, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts