Yanmei Jiang: A Toe in the Water

Opening Reception: September 5, 2025, 6-8pm

Chinese American Arts Council/Gallery 456 is pleased to present Yanmei Jiang’s solo exhibition: A Toe in the Water, curated by Alamo Artworks, on view from September 5, 2025, through September 19, 2025.

Exhibition Statement

Compression, color becomes resistance—each mark a declaration of presence across time. These works speak through imbalance: between seen and unseen, center and margin, pigment and absence. What may seem like silence is ancestral memory, held in every brushstroke. The insatiable emotions and conflicting energy are hidden in the painting, flowing from history to present, from personal to collective, through contrasting colors and interwoven strokes.

Artist Statement

These paintings are selected from my work over the past two years. I use different materials such as acrylic, oil pastels, and oil paint to express conflicting energies. For me, colors embody the complex emotions that are suppressed within. Coming from a traditional family in China, I carry emotions that are both deeply personal and inherited.

When I arrived in a new country, the clash of cultures awakened these dormant emotions and wounds. Through strong contrasts, interwoven layers, and entangled colors, I attempt to give form to this complexity. In my paintings, I also draw from calligraphy and Chinese philosophy on energy and balance. Through art, I seek a sense of peace and a poetic way of being.

Before painting, I worked as a photographer. My first recognized series, Me and Me, explored self-exploration within intimate relationships in China. Using the body as a medium, I blurred the boundaries between masculinity and femininity, reflecting inner struggles while questioning traditional roles. This process of inward reflection and healing is something I now pursue more directly through painting and performance. Abstraction has become my primary medium.

Sensitivity to my environment is a vital source of my practice. In new surroundings, I try to embrace new cultures and ways of living. In the past two years of art practice, I have been working to clear and understand my inner self. Looking forward, I hope my work will continue to engage with the present environment, while expanding into installation and performance. The pursuit of balance amid conflict remains at the heart of my practice.

Artist Bio

Yanmei Jiang is a Chinese artist based in New York. After beginning her career in photography, she gradually shifted her practice toward painting and installation. She explores the flow of energy between the inner spirit and the surrounding environment, while also responding to the absences and longings from her childhood. Drawing from Asian philosophy, she works with simplicity and balance, seeking reconnection with self, others, and the world through poetic presence.)

Curator Bio

Alamo Artworks (b. 1997) is an American-born Italian sculptor who was raised in Texas. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Museum School in Boston and went on to complete a master’s degree at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral program in Visual Art. Deeply inspired by both his heritage and surroundings, Alamo continues to expand his artistic horizons within the American art scene, drawing influence from institutions like Freeport Art Handling and beyond.

Please contact info@caacarts.org for more information.

Gallery 456
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Chinese American Arts Council’s Gallery 456 Visual Arts Exhibition Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Gove¬¬¬rnor and the New York State Legislature.