Kristin Yang

Kristin Yang, an artist originally from China and now living in South Africa, was introduced to us by long-time collaborator Colbert Mashile. She worked at David Krut Print Workshop during July 2012 on a series of Unique monotypes and watercolour monotypes, as well as watercolour monotypes incorporating marks made with a dremel tool. She also worked on a series of linocuts based on images of her son as a new-born baby, wrapped in swaddling. The pointillist technique she has used to carve the linoleum plate has produced works that transcend the mark expected from the medium, abstracting the images in ways that allow them to float on their full bleed black background.

Born in 1970 in Shandong, China. In 1999 Kristin moved to South Africa and settled in KwaZulu-Natal. In 2013 she went back to Beijing and created the Kristin NG-Yang Art Studio in Song’zhuang, Beijing. Currently, she lives and works between South Africa and China. Kristin has traveled extensively through Southern Africa, Europe, and America; visiting many museums and galleries during her travels. She has held numerous solo exhibitions in South Africa, Italy and China. Her artworks have been exhibited in South Africa, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Australia and China, and have been collected by art galleries, art institutions and private collectors. Both Kristin’s grandfather, a traditional Chinese literati artist, and father, who practiced oil paintings in a more Western style, had a deep love for the arts. And so, having grown up around artists, Kristin’s creativity was nurtured from a young age. She moved to South Africa having been offered the opportunity to learn English- she had only intended to stay for two years, however, this of course was not the case. Kristin’s work traverses the experience of a Chinese-born artist living in South Africa. She talks about how she used to sit in her car and simply observe the movement around her little enclosed space. She discusses a quietness in her work, which ultimately in part stems from the separation she felt as a foreigner- entranced by the beauty of the country yet feeling somewhat outside of it. Kristin graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1991. In 2001 she registered to do a Post Graduate Diploma at the Center for Visual Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, obtaining the University’s Top 45 Postgraduate Scholarship. In 2004 Kristin completed her Master’s in visual arts.