Yuan Fang Interviewed by Emergent Magazine

The Emergent magazine interviewed VillageOneArt’s collaborating artist, Yuan Fang, to share her embrace of Greenberg-ian modernism and the story behind the creation of her work.

EM: Since we’re currently in your studio in Brooklyn, I think an appropriate place to start would be to talk about the space itself. How do you think having this large space has affected your practice?

Fang Yuan: Getting a fairly large studio is one of the best decisions I have ever made! First, I always want to go bigger – I sometimes joke about it as my way of “manspreading” as a petite Asian girl. Besides that, I guess how I get involved with the canvas is highly dependent upon the relationship between me and my surroundings when I work. Painting in an ample space helps me see what is going on within the painting and makes the brushstrokes looser. Additionally, I like to place a few paintings side by side in the studio to look at them as a group to figure out how to edit some details of each one, and having this studio gives me a chance to do that.

EM: I love your phrase “getting involved with the canvas.” It pegs painting as a collaborative process between the artist and the material. How do you begin to “get involved” with a canvas? What does your process look like?

Fang Yuan: The process feels more like a battle between the canvas and myself. The key is to stay present and be fully aware of what is happening in every corner of the canvas.

I would say that my process changes from time to time. Recently, I started with little studies/sketches with pen and crayon to initiate a brief composition and color palette of each painting and use it as a reference to begin the first layer of paintings. After that, I mainly work with acrylic and sometimes add spray paint. Then, I build up more and more layers until I call it an end.

When I’m lucky, finishing one painting takes only a few days. Mostly, though, I start working on one painting this week and then feel like I could be better about it, put it aside, rework it next week, etc. Sometimes I will stare at an old painting (by old, I mean a few months old) in my studio for a while and cover some parts or add more details. Sometimes I paint over paintings I don’t feel confident about – there are no rules.