Artist’s Statement 

‘A Journey between the Mind and the Heart’ is named for the production of paintings spanning almost a year and a half. Within that time I had put great effort at applying rules, as in a game, in making the paintings. However, very often the rules were left out so I could be free to explore, to follow my heart.  At the end of the two years’ period, I discovered that the rules that I tried so hard to formulate for control, for stability, have always been there - in the back of my mind, embedded in my heart. These ‘rules’ came, as naturally as the rules of the universe, except that I was not able to pin them down consistently in a concrete way. Looking at the twelve paintings in the show, I was beginning, I think, to sense the presences for these ‘rules for the game’  - in an intuitive manner that guided me to complete these paintings.  I admit that not all paintings in the show were created equally and that I have chosen, in my opinion, the best twelve out of the eighteen that I have produced within this period.  Much work lies ahead.

Yan Kong's painting is an investigation into the complexity of pictorial space. In her recent work Kong searches for new relationships of forms and colors that are juxtaposed and carefully considered sometimes, impulsive and haphazard at others.  Using a color palette that is raw and direct, her production is a dance of visual energy and harmony incorporating elements of discovery, immediacy, impulse, and surprise.  For Kong, the working process is a struggle to obtain freedom within a boundary.