France
Exploring rootedness, migration and memory through painting and the language of plants.
Nationality
Biography
Born in Beijing, Yan XIAO HUG is a multidisciplinary Franco-Chinese artist who has lived and worked in Paris for over twenty years. Her practice spans painting, lithography and site-specific installation. She studied art history, drawing and painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, subsequently developing her artistic language in various Parisian studios.
Introduced to drawing and traditional calligraphy by her grandfather, she spent her childhood depicting plants following . These early experiences continue to inform her work, in which plants, trees, roots and water become metaphors for migration, cultural memory and the transmission of heritage.
Her practice explores the intertwined experiences of rootedness and uprooting, bringing Chinese cultural traditions into dialogue with Western painting and material experimentation. Combining calligraphic gestures with chiaroscuro, her paintings create connections between breath, the body and the natural world. She approaches painting as a process of excavation, allowing traces of memory to emerge through successive layers of colour and form. Across her work, the boundaries between cultures, bodies and landscapes remain permeable, opening a space for reflection on identity, belonging and coexistence.
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