Xiaojing Yan’s migration from China to North America has informed her work and her own identity. Her outlook about freedom and individuality has evolved from the Cultural Revolution to socialism to a more open market in China to her new identity within North America’s democratic system. Using the traditional Chinese materials and techniques of lantern making she reinvents form, sensibility and presentation. Xiaojing Yan’s minimalist sculptures and installations are designed in geometrical shapes from tissue paper and natural reed. Her forms are rhythmical and suspended as though floating or casting shadows to extend their space.

Xiaojing Yan received her BFA from the Nannjing Art Institute, Jiangsu, China and her MFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA. Her work has been in group exhibitions since 2004 including the Canadian Sculpture Centre, Toronto and she has had solo exhibitions including the IndexG Gallery, Toronto and The Phoenix Art Gallery, Nanjing, China. Lectures in Universities in China have included the subject “Transformation and Reinvention of Chinese Art in a New Century”.

Texts selected from Glenhyrst’s website