Zhang Yan
About
First, I would like to declare that I never try to express loneliness in my works, it is just a way for losers and negative people to vent dissatisfaction. All of my paint and materials are hard to come by, I do not want to waste them painting something of dark spirits, so please do not be fooled by the dark colors in my works. 
I like to walk alone in the city. For example, I would ride from the southeast corner of Beijing to the northwest part of this city; I once spent a night walking from Beijing's Iron and Steel Institute Circular Railway Experimental Base to the train station and then took a bus back home to sleep.The purpose is simply to see what the environment around us looks like in each time period. So some of the inspiration for the images in the paintings come from feelings of walking in the city.
The mad development of materials has brought a lot of convenience to our lives. The progress of productivity allows human beings to do more things, but people have become prouder and more inflated inside their mind. In Karl Theodor Jaspers's Die geistige Situation der Zeit (Man in the Modern Age), he writes that human superstition of technology has become a new belief. People no longer fear death or disaster, and believe that the development of science and technology can solve everything. Under such a state of mind, people enjoy the convenience of our lives optimistically. But people will eventually die and the materials on which we live will become garbage. Whenever I see the bustling scenes in the city, I will reflect on the changes brought about by the achievements of these technological advances and the meaning of its own. I am fascinated by all the traces left by history. Their existence represents the past years of mankind and represents the beautiful era of the natural development of human society. However, with the acceleration of the pace of life, everything is evolving at a faster and faster speed. A newly built house would be torn down in just a few years. From industrial products to industrial waste, it has formed a cycle, and garbage may be turned into products. It seems that nothing can be eternal. The cost of construction is to destroy the past. People value the present even more, they seize the day to have fun, and eventually they become lost in such a world. Because of my skepticism about contemporary society, I am eager to find an eternal truth that will make me feel safe. Such emotions may be the reason why I like to wander alone in the city.
Under this background, the above self-reported mental status and characteristics of the times have decided my specific way of observing and thinking. I like to see the world from such an angle. Curiosity and worry about the future have become the source of my impulse to create. The dark colors in my works may be caused by my pessimism about the material world. These works were created in the same period as my conversion to Christianity. They also reflected my psychological state at that time.
I am a student of Chinese paintings. My pursuit of brush and ink and long-term college training makes me value painting techniques and feelings. I like to express complex relationships in the image. Stacks of bicycles have caused a strong desire in me to express from both the spiritual and the technical level. And because of my printmaking study in college, you can find many traces of wood board language in the image. Eventually, my works become what they look like now. I think, they are the inevitable results of the spirit and culture of the times.
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#Zhang Yan
Career
1986 Born in Chengde
2009 B.F.A in Printmaking Dept Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China
2012 Master of the Department of Printmaking Dept Arts, Central Academy of Fine Arts