Yuan Jai at Paris Centre Pompidou

From February 5 to April 27, 2020 Paris Centre Pompidou welcomes Yuan Jai. After many personal and collective exhibitions across the world, the Chinese artist will stop by Paris for an exceptional display!

Yuan Jai’s work is very peculiar. The artist mixes many practices and many themes and styles in the same work. She totally is comfortable with her inspirations. Contemporary artist, she creates her works with all kinds of graphic and artistic samples.

Mixing, this is what could describe Yuan Jai’s art best.

Born in 1941 in Chongqing (Sichuan), she moves with her military and educated dad to Taiwan in 1947. At Taiwan National University, she studies traditional Chinese art. In 1966, she graduates from the Louvain university, Belgium, where she learns the history of art and restoration. She finishes her studies in Brussels, at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage.

She returns to Taiwan after spending some time in several British and American universities to polish her training. It’s the National Palace Museum in Taipei that opens its doors to her, she works in the restoration department and she’ll even run it.

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Yuan Jai also manages to tell the very peculiar story of Taiwan through her works, since in light of its political status, Taiwan is at the crossroads of Asian and Occidental cultures.

Because of her very eclectic art experience, Yuan Jai creates her own vision of the world. Her works show as many traditional Chinese patterns as Occidental patterns, she wonderfully mixes styles and eras. Her works are made on silk canvas and colors come from natural mineral pigments. All this leads to a very bright look with vibrant colors.

When looking at a painting by Yuan Jai, you easily loose your bearings, her creations are filled with details, patterns, different stories. You don’t know if it’s abstract art, figurative art, psychedelia, surrealism or impressionism. Maybe it’s a bit of everything at the same time.

Anyway, this exhibition promises a wonderful journey.