Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Dan Jian | Nascent Terrain
Installation View
1.7.23 -2.11.23
Time and material collide and seem to hover on the surface of Dan Jian’s new work. In her monochromatic compositions that layer cutouts over drawings on tracing paper, there exists a sense of story, of incomplete narratives drifting on the edge of disclosure. Figurative elements float into relationship with one another in the misty, moody terrain, like mirages.
Drawing on the tradition of Chinese ink landscapes and more contemporary practices of collage, Jian inserts her delicate, nimble interpretations. In the studio, the artist applies charcoal, ash, and dust on the horizontal surfaces and then lifts them, allowing the medium to form gravitational washes, reminiscent of watercolor. Temporality (the passing of past and present) is one of Jian’s interests, as is the medium’s ability to convey depth and perspective and evoke visibility and invisibility, and vice versa. Jian’s formal explorations rely on the paper as terrain of possibility and the vestiges of something that has been burned, its trace—like memory. Here, the viewer sets foot in an intuitive, interior world, where narrative emerges from form.
Dan Jian was born in the city of Lichuan, in the Hubei province in China and now lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas where she is an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University. She received her B.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Temple University, Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. and her M.F.A. in Painting from The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Dan Jian has received several grants and awards including: The Research and Creative Activities Fund Grant from Texas Christian University; Junior Faculty Summer Research Program Grant at Texas Christian University; Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Small Grant, Columbus. OH; Finalist, Don Bachardy Fellowship, London, UK; Student Opportunity Award, The Ohio State University Art; Certificate of Merit, Philadelphia Water Color Society, Philadelphia, PA. Jian has also participated in serval artist residencies, including: Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL; 器. Organhaus Contemporary Art Space, Chongqing, China; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Residency, Amherst, VA; Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; “OHIO 8550”, Chesterhill, OH. Jian’s work has been exhibited at CICA Museum (Gyeonggi-do, Korea.)
