Yan Ping’s Sweet and Spirited Scenes of Youth

Yan Ping offers a moment for musing in London with her exhibition Love Between a Fish and a Bird (21 February–30 March 2024) at MASSIMODECARLO.

Inspired by a song written by Chinese singer Cui Jian, the show’s lyrical title ponders the complexity of love and the uncertainties it brings. The exhibition, comprising oil on canvas paintings hung on mint green walls, explores the nuances of love through the perspective of youth, encapsulating life’s joy and beauty.

Ping’s paintings are marked by their expressiveness, characterised by thick and heavy brushstrokes that render the energy and movement of everyday life.

Spanning from large square works to smaller, rectangular pieces, each painting depicts different scenes of teenagers playing in the sea, lying in fields, gathering flowers, and strolling along beaches. Rich in colour and thick impasto, they exude a soft, sweet, and spirited ambience.

In Jiaodong Bay (2023), teens gather around a giant inflatable flamingo on a beach. As two figures share a close moment beside the float, others in the distance meander hand in hand toward the sea.

Ping’s painting represents young love and desire. By using pops of bright colours like magenta and cobalt at the centre of the composition, Ping draws viewers’ gaze into and around a romantic scene, where several relationships are unfolding.

Love Between a Fish and a Bird marks Ping’s inaugural exhibition in the U.K., which is on view until 30 March 2024. —[O]

Main image: Exhibition view: Yan Ping, Love Between a Fish and a Bird, MASSIMODECARLO, London (21 February–30 March 2024). Courtesy MASSIMODECARLO, London. Photo: Robert Glowacki.