A Review of Metamorphosis
by Liu Jianhua, Professor of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts
Chen Yinan’s mother was once my schoolmate in university. About two years before, I heard that her daughter had been sent abroad for art education, with the art works of whom impressively mentioned then. Chen Yinan has been influenced by her family from cradle with enthusiasm for art and good art education background both at home and abroad. Chen Yinan’s mother asked me to write some words about this exhibition, while I ordinarily do little paperwork and I was puzzled then about what to write. In purpose of sincere communication with the young artist, I make determination to write here some comments of mine that may be superficial.
She has conducted a lot of meaningful explorations and practices of her art creation these years, among which the theme, butterfly, has always been a direction of her art creation all the way since her being an undergraduate till now. She uses various medium materials to present her art works, including ceramic, wood, metal, light, video, music... From the form of her works, we can feel her sensitivity of medium materials and yearning for the promotion of art forward.
Butterfly has always been the object of study, expression and description by lots of biologists, scientists, artists, writers and poets home and abroad in all ages, with large amount of classical works produced. Chen Yinan has been being devoted into the insistent art experiments of this kind of creature from her own perspective, basing on her understandings and thoughts of life. Her art works demonstrate her capability of applying comprehensive mediums, following the path of an increasingly deepened development along her own determined direction, with the expectation to form an individualized art language, which is rarely seen among young artists and truly worthy of appreciations. She has conducted meaningful attempts regarding the arrangement of spatial form and comprehensive materials, the grasp of visual effect and the expression of concepts. She achieves an integration of sensitive feelings as time, space, life, fragility into the form of works, which mainly conveys to the audience her understandings and thoughts of life in real world, as well as her memory of growth process. She, as a young artist, especially in the special contemporary era, deserves our attention and support in her persistence of art.
As for Chen Yinan, she has a long way to go in her art career, which requires her of continuous thinking, experimenting and creating. Her practices and endeavors in recent years are demonstrable in this exhibition. And we hope that she may continue deepening the development of her art works along such a direction, so as to finally reach her ideal level of art achievement. During the exhibition visit, audience will enter the set trajectory of time and space in line with the clues designed by her for communication and collision of ideas. Let us look forward to it.
2021.9.28
几句话
刘建华，上海美术学院教授
我和陈艺楠的母亲是大学同学，前两年听她说到她女儿在国外接受艺术教育，也提到过她女儿创作的作品，因此有了印象。陈艺楠从小受家庭影响，热爱艺术，并有很好的国内外艺术教育背景。这次展览，她母亲约我写几句话，我平时文字工作做得少，一时也不知道应该如何进行，出于与年轻艺术家交流的真诚，所以在这儿谈点个人粗浅的想法。
这些年她在作品的创作上进行了很多有意义的探索和实践。蝴蝶主题是从本科开始一直贯穿到她现在创作的一个方向。她的作品也运用了多种媒介的材料来呈现，有陶瓷、木、金属、灯光、影像、音乐... 从这些作品呈现的形态上，我们可以感受到她对材料媒介的敏感和对艺术不断往前推进的向往。
蝴蝶从古到今成为国内外诸多生物学家、科学家、艺术家，文学家、诗人所研究、表达和描绘的对象，也产生了非常多经典作品。陈艺楠从她自己的角度，遵循着对生命的理解，对人生的思考，执着地对这个生物形态进行了多年的艺术实验。从她的作品中，我们可以看到她运用综合媒介的能力，她的创作正在朝着自己个人确定的方向深化，以期形成个人化的艺术语言，这对年轻的艺术家来说是难能可贵的。作品在空间形态、综合材料的掌控，视觉效果的把握及观念的表达上做了有意义的尝试。她将时间、空间、生命、脆弱等敏锐感受融入到作品的形态中，更多的是让人感受到其对生活的理解及现实中生命的思考和个人成长过程中的记忆。作为年轻艺术家，特别是在当今特殊的时代，她对作品对艺术的执着探索值得大家关注和支持。
就陈艺楠而言，未来的路很长，还需要她去不断进行思考、实验、创作。在这次的展览中，我们可以看到她近些年的实践和努力，也希望她能够朝这样的方向继续深化下去，达到自己理想中的艺术高度。在这个展览的过程中，按照她设想的线索，让观众进入到设定的时空轨迹中，进行交流以及思想上的碰撞。让我们期待。
2021.9.28