Shanghai-based illustrator Yanjun Chen is a deeply introspective artist who explores the complex layers of identity, purpose, and human psychology. By blending rich visual references from Chinese culture and Western psychology, she invites the viewer to confront their own inner world.
☯️ The Influence of Philosophy and the Psyche
Chen’s artistic practice is built on constant curiosity and questioning. Her primary interests lie in psychology, philosophy, and the occult. This intellectual background shapes both the thematic depth and formal balance of her work:
- Taiji Diagram and Symmetry: One of the strongest references she draws from Chinese culture is the Taiji diagram (the Yin-Yang symbol). She frequently uses this image in her work to convey the feeling “You are inside me. I am inside you”—the harmony of opposites and symmetry—through both colour and composition.
- Jung and Freud: After her education at the China Academy of Art, encountering the work of psychologists and philosophers like Jung and Freud while pursuing a master’s degree at the University of the Arts London (UAL) transformed Chen’s art. Turning the nightmares caused by academic pressure into paintings marked the first steps of this psychological exploration.
✍️ A Distinctive Technique: Arguing with Oneself
Chen’s creative process is a deliberate challenge to the “efficient” and “fast” style of modern commercial art. Even in her basic techniques, she describes undergoing a process of “self-debunking”:
- Transparency and Repetition: Instead of forming shapes with a single, decisive brushstroke, she prefers repeatedly blending the same colour block with a brush set to 30% opacity. This layered approach—contrary to the quick and polished commercial style—allows her to crystallise moments of intense interaction and tension.
- Subjective Order: Chen believes illustration grants the artist permission to infuse their own subjective consciousness and create a personalised order. Her goal is not merely to produce works that are “sweet and harmless” in appearance; rather, she wants her pieces to be “meaningful, prickly, and worth lingering over.”
Through the distinctive and deliberately slowed-down technique she has developed, Yanjun Chen offers viewers a powerful window—not only into her own experiences but also into our own inner reflections.
