Letter #195: Yuan Fang (2024)
Artist and Owner of Fang Yuan Studio | Sound & Vision Podcast
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Today’s letter is the transcript of an interview with Yuan Fang. In this interview, Yuan discusses art and studio spaces, cultural differences between China and the US, art school experiences and creative influences, her journey to an art education and beyond, personal development and growth, art and creativity with a focus on abstraction, her inspirations, and her creative process.
Yuan Fang is an artist and the owner of Fang Yuan Studio. She currently has a solo exhibition at the Skarstedt Gallery in London, and just wrapped up an exhibit at Shanghai’s Long Museum. Other recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Prince & Wooster in New York, Bill Brady Gallery in Los Angeles, and ATM Gallery in New York. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at galleries including Stems Gallery in Brussels and COMA Gallery in Sydney, and acquired by firms including ICA Miami, Lafayette, Anticipations, and The Flag Art Foundation.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
[Transcript and any errors are mine.]
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Transcript
Host: You're in Brooklyn too, right?
Yuan Fang: Yes.
Host: What part?
Yuan Fang: Oh, I live in Fort Greene.
Host: Okay.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, yeah.
Host: Is your studio far from where you live? Or is it where you live?
Yuan Fang: Actually, I just move into a residency that I just got in. The residency name is Silver Arts Project. It's located in World Trade Center. So actually, now my studio is an FIDI, which is kind of weird. It's kind of like you having a normal job and going to the subway and then commuting to FIDI.
Host: Right, like the whole idea of us becoming artists was not to go to Wall Street every day.
Yuan Fang: Oh, yeah. But now I'm going to the Wall Street every day, basically.
Host: So, how--have you started? Have you started working there? Or are you just moving in?
Yuan Fang: Yeah, I just moved in last week.
Host: Okay. Is it weird to commute there?
Yuan Fang: At the beginning it's actually--it's kind of weird, because my working hours actually just like a normal nine to five sort of hours. So when I actually commuting to World Trade Center, I have to squeeze in the subways, etc. It feels like a normal person, because before, my studio was in Bed-Stuy. I basically just walk to my studio every day. It's like a half an hour walk, it's a nice way to get your daily cardio done. So that was kind of chill, but now, getting on the subway and then commuting to financial district is kind of--I don't know. But I think I'll get used to it.
Host: Did you change your dress code? Are you wearing like wall street style clothes?
Yuan Fang: No, I just--when I'm just going into the studio and knowing that I'm not seeing people, I just wear--I don't know, very simple clothes. I don't know. Yeah, yeah.
Host: Like studio gear.
Yuan Fang: But I always change when I start painting, because I work really messily.
Host: Yeah, I've seen studio shots. It looks like you do get a little paint here and there.
Yuan Fang: Not a little. But, yes.
Host: Well, here's a question for you. Do you think that changing your studio--I mean, obviously, when someone changes a studio space, there's a little bit of a different feel. But do you think it will affect your work?
Yuan Fang: I don't think necessarily because I feel like I am pretty--I'm a pretty private person. I usually... I don't get interrupted by my surroundings that much. So I think my only--I don't know--when I'm working, I just need like a really big space because I feel like the space between the canvas and the room/my studio is very essential to my practice. So I always need a big space to paint. And also, not to mention that almost all my paintings are large scale, they are bigger than me. So I think I just need--the space is very important for me. And also, I think I would prefer a lot of natural lights, as I guess most of painter would feel that way.
Host: Well, I read a little bit about--and I don't know if this is true or not--you can always believe what you read--but that your work is influenced by sort of anxiousness, or movement, or feeling--your personal relationship to those sorts of things of--and that comes out in the action of the painting. So I'd imagine your mind state on a busy commute to the financial district, your headspace, and what you've encountered would be different than a half an hour walk from Fort Greene to BedStuy.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. But I feel like when you enter into the studio building, which is just like a very--I will say kinda like a fancy, clean, high rise office building, it actually calms you down. After all the subway stuff. Yeah.
Host: That's true, because most studio buildings are not calm.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. They're very chaotic. Like industrial sort of...
Host: Yeah, it puts you in a certain mindspace too, because usually a lot of studio buildings in Brooklyn are cold, they're not super well maintained. There's--I don't know--the lobby of my studio building in Bushwick is freezing. And it's a lot of industrial stuff going on outside, so I feel like I get into a certain minds--but then when I go into my studio, it becomes my world. Speaking of your world, you grew up in Shenzhen, right?
Yuan Fang: Yes.
Host: How was that?
Yuan Fang: When I have to describe it to people, I usually just say that it's a city nearby Hong Kong, because most people never heard of the city. But I will say, Shenzhen is kind of like a Silicon Valley in China. All the big tech company headquarters are in Shenzhen. But also, it's a really young city without that many history or culture. And also, it's kind of like an immigrant city. So most people who live there are from different parts of China. So I guess because of that, growing up there, I never feel like--I don't know. So I didn't grew up going to museum or art stuff in Shenzhen, so I guess--and Shenzhen is kind of a boring city. Like sorry, but there's not that much going on there besides working and then money making. So I don't know.
Host: Like the financial district.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, sort of. Exactly. Yeah. So ever since elementary school, I would just go to Hong Kong with my mom as weekend trips and stuff. And Hong Kong was much more interesting. And, yeah. I don't have that much stuff to say about Shenzhen. It's what it is.
Host: Did your parents end up there through work?
Yuan Fang: Yeah.
Host: Or were they--yeah. Did they work in the creative fields at all? Or were they creative?
Yuan Fang: No. It's kind of--I have a very typical Chinese parents. So my mom is sort of like a finance bro. And my dad also works at a bank, but he was like doing managing or like operation stuff. He's not really like a finance finance bro. But yeah, my parents obviously wants me to be a banker since I was a kid, and I was--so I went to--I don't know--normal schools in China. And yeah. But the thing is, my dad--and also a little bit of my mom--he's very into culture or architecture, design, and art stuff. So I was very fortunate that since I was a kid, my parents would take me to Europe, travel around the world. And I remember going--because my dad is a big fan of Van Gogh and then Picasso and stuff--so I went to the Picasso Museum in Spain when I was 11 or something, and that kind of was--
Host: In Barcelona? Nice.
Yuan Fang: Yes. And then went to all the museums in Paris. Yeah. So that was kind of the beginning of my art education. So it's pretty weird. Yeah, it's pretty weird, because I'm a Chinese, but I feel like almost none of my art education is from China. Yeah.
Host: Which I would imagine is a big difference, because a lot of the artists that I've interviewed and know who grew up in China, who've gone to art school there, it's seems so rigorous and traditional.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. I never went to art schools in China. So obviously, my parents want me to be a banker, and they're like, Oh, you have to go to the top middle school, and then the top high school. And they're like--because then I decided to--Oh, I'm gonna study abroad, I'm going to go to college in the US--and they were like, Okay, you have to go to Ivy League. And I did get into the best Middle School in Shenzhen, and then the top High School in Shenzhen, but I will say, I have trouble concentrating on studying. I'm not that good at school. So I didn't get into Ivy League. And then... yeah. My parents was like, Oh, no. And I first went to a university trying to study business in Boston. And then after half semester in, I was like, I really couldn't do this. And then it was--I think it was right before my 18th birthday, which is in November, and I called my parents and I was like, Oh, I really--I need to go to art school. You guys really need to send me there, otherwise I'm going to hate you forever. And they're like, Okay, fine. So I kind of dropped out, and then applied to schools again in the US, and then--yeah.
Host: So--but the plan was to always go to school in the US?
Yuan Fang: Yeah. But I never went to art schools in China. I mean, I think I took like one or two drawing classes when I was in middle school, and then I really don't like it, because as you might know, it's really rigorous and it's not fun. And I just couldn't do it.
Host: You wanted the freedom.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. And also, my parents were like, even if you can take the drawing classes, we're not going to allow you to go to art school or become an artist. And then I have to spend a whole weekend doing my calculus classes instead, or English classes, so I just never had enough time or energy in China to do art stuff, I guess.
Host: Right. Do you think that--this is a big question, and you don't have to answer this, because it might be a bigger idea that--but do you think that in China, the schools that are so rigorous, and are about technique, and traditional ways of making work, but almost traditional in the European sense, more than... it's--or would you be learning sort of ink drawing and scroll painting? I doubt that you're doing that, right? It's more of a western style of learning figure drawing and still life painting and things like that?
Yuan Fang: I don't really know that much about like art academies in China, to be honest.
Host: A lot of the work that comes out of it looks like that, right?
Yuan Fang: I don't know. Maybe in terms of contemporary Chinese art I don't think so, but... because I feel like it's definitely--in China, there's more and more artists around my age--most of them have study abroad experience. So I guess--I don't know that many like artists who like purely did their education in China.
Host: Yeah. Well, this is a parallel question. Growing up, were you--was there music in the house, or were you interested in music at all?
Yuan Fang: I mean, I think when I was a kid, I just listened to pop music. I listened to Lady Gaga growing up. My dad likes classical music, so he always like shit about my music taste...
Host: That's so banker of him.
Yuan Fang: I know. But yeah... but it's kind of weird that my parents, we never owned a TV in the house. And my mom is really into literature. It's funny. When I was 10 years old, in elementary school, my mom gave me some books by Yukio Mishima--do you know the Japanese author who killed himself? And I got really into it. Since I was a kid, I was like 10 years old, but can you imagine--It's kind of crazy that if you're a mom and you give your kid Yukio Mishima.
Host: That's pretty heavy.
Yuan Fang: Yeah.
Host: But it had an effect. Were you into it? Or were you just like, What the hell is this?
Yuan Fang: I was really into it. Yeah.
Host: Well, sometimes, when artists are young, before they're artists, music is a very easy way to sort of see people being expressive or finding their genre, or they identify with music. It's not like a lot of 14 or 15 year olds are identifying themselves through museum art and stuff. But music is something that they can really connect to. But it sounds like--I mean, Lady Gaga is a great example of someone who's very creative. She does her own thing and she's very talented.
Yuan Fang: Especially as a kid in China... I think it kind of creates a big influence on me. But lately, I think after I moved to New York, I got into Glen Rock, like Roxy music and stuff. So I think that music taste is all over the place.
Host: Yeah. Well did--so let's talk about SVA. What was it like for you? Was it a hard adjustment at first? Did you like it? Or how were the classes...
Yuan Fang: I think it's more about me trying to navigate myself in New York, because I think, now looking back, I think it's kind of crazy. Before I moved to New York, of course, I study SAT and AP stuff in China, but it was not really like practical English, like we don't really like talk or communicate in English in daily basis. So when I just moved to New York, I barely speak any English, which was pretty wild. Yeah.
Host: I can imagine that's a big shift.
Yuan Fang: I have no idea why my parents did this to me, but anyways. So when I was first arriving in New York, I actually--I begin to study photography in SVA, which is pretty weird, because--so first of all, when I decided to go to art school, I didn't expect myself to become a painter, because I didn't really had a chance to paint. Which is funny. But but I started to like taking photographs as a hobby when I was in high school, so I was like, Okay, let me give this a try. And then I realized that I cannot like become a photographer. But then because I got super bored in classes, so I started to do little random sketches on my sketchbook, like very--just like drawings. And then people saw my drawings, and they're like, Oh, you're actually good--kind of good at this. And I was like, Okay... so I was thinking of transferring my major. But then, I didn't want to study Fine Arts as my undergrad study, because I feel like, I don't know--I kind of want to study more art history or more humanities stuff in undergrad, because I feel like to become an artist, you don't really need people to teach you how to paint or to draw and stuff. So I never feel like I need that many classes like that. So I transferred into like a major called visual and critical studies in SVA, which is kind of like an interdisciplinary major, but it's kind of like fine arts, but with more emphasis on art history or philosophy, or even politics. I took a class that was named Art and Politics in undergrad. So basically, that's my--after I transfer... yeah.
Host: That's pretty advanced, in a way, to think to yourself at that level: I'm not going to have to go through the gauntlet of all these painting courses, what I need to do is understand the conceptual side of things, or really think about art and do research and look at art history and think about the concepts of this stuff, and focus on that--which I'm sure paid off. But all the while, were you painting--did you start painting in the studios? Or did you not do that? You were just drawing and sketching?
Yuan Fang: That's also a funny question, because I think I took--because it was not really a fine art major, so I never had my own studio until the senior year of my undergrad, which is, maybe 2018. So before that, I only take one or two foundation painting classes, but it's just three hours or six hour classes, and after the class is done, you have to put the painting back to the painting rack and go, because there was more--so it was not really a constant studio practice. But at the senior year on my undergrad, I finally got a communal studio. But I have to share it with like--I don't know--like 10 other people, which is also wild. But also--finally I have a 24/7 studio for me to use. So that was when I would say I kinda seriously started painting.
Host: Yeah. And then at that point, were the sketches that you were doing and the the paintings that you're making--were they larger scale, were they abstract, or was it something else at that point?
Yuan Fang: No, I will say they are kind of large scale in terms of the space I had, because I only had a tiny corner in that communal studio. So I think the largest painting I did undergrad was like 70 inches, 60 inches. But I wasn't really able to paint the size I want until I got my own studio after MFA.
Host: Oh, even in your MFA you couldn't work large scale?
Yuan Fang: No, my MFA studio was really, really small. It's kinda like half of my bedroom, which is not that big.
Host: Well, when you graduated SVA, at that point you had started painting. And so, you just immediately thought, Oh, MFA is the next step. I should do that right away?
Yuan Fang: No, I took like a gap year between undergrad and MFA. To be honest, I never wanted to do an MFA, because as I said, I was like, I don't need people to teach me how to paint or do my own practice. But then, my parents were like-- because my mom has an MBA, and she was like, as my kid, you have to have a master degree. And my mom was like, We're not forcing you to get married or have kids, but you have to get a master degree. And I was like, Okay, fine.
Host: That's amazing. Well, they were true erudite--they valued education. They valued what a degree could do, I guess. But that's funny because--
Yuan Fang: It's pretty Asian parents mindset.
Host: Yeah. The description you gave of what you were searching for in undergrad as opposed to a fine arts major is funny, because in a lot of master's degree programs, that's kind of what you do, is you take critical theory classes or you have a lot of studio visits. And it's not so much of mix red and yellow to make orange, it's more about the conversations. It's about immersing yourself in a dialogue and having a community, which is very valuable to people, a lot of people who get their master's. But how did you find school, then? And your MFA? Like going into it, you weren't necessarily really wanting to go, but how was it?
Yuan Fang: I mean, it was kinda a tough time, because the first year was all online, remember. It was COVID. So that was tough. Can you imagine doing online painting critique? Through Zoom?
Host: Well, I mean, I teach, so I can imagine. Because I did it.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, but definitely not the best way of teaching.
Host: No, not at all. I mean, it's hard.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, it was hard. And then--I don't know. Because I feel like my MFA--we don't really have departments. We don't have painting departments or sculpture department. It's like everybody was in the same pool. So I think-- sometimes I feel like it's hard to critique other people's practice when it's a medium that you are not used to, or a medium that you yourself is not working on. And then, I don't know--I think my--mostly it's like my MFA studio is just too small.
Host: But you got your BFA at SVA, and you went for your MFA at SVA, right?
Yuan Fang: Yeah, yeah.
Host: That's pretty unconventional, right? Usually people go somewhere else.
Yuan Fang: I mean, I applied to maybe six or seven schools. And I got rejected by all of them besides SVA. They know that I don't want to get MFA, so they rejected me.
Host: Oh, they could smell the I'm doing this because my parents told me to.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, they could smell the--yeah, yeah. But I don't know. It's just my theory. But I'm just not good at doing applications, I guess.
Host: And SVA knew you, so they were like, Oh, it's a good student.
Yuan Fang: I don't know about--
Host: But yeah, I mean, was it--what do you think you got out of the MFA program besides a small studio that you didn't get in undergraduate?
Yuan Fang: I'm still in touch with a few teachers, and my peers, and I think that's the most valuable part. And I think in MFA I more and more realized what the thing I want in my life and what the thing I don't want in my life, I guess.
Host: Yeah. Were there any teachers that you really bonded with that you felt like really helped you on your path?
Yuan Fang: Yeah. Yeah, I have one professor that I really bonded to. And we still meet every few months because he's now in my Brooklyn studio building, so we're kind of like studio neighbors.
Host: Oh, nice. Small world.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. I got into my studio building in BedStuy through him, because he gave me the leasing office number, and then I text myself, so yeah.
Host: Gotcha. Nice. So the first year was online. Was it nice to have--was the second year kind of semi normal?
Yuan Fang: Yeah. I was really, really depressed during the first year. Because you don't really see people. All you do is I doing online classes. I mean, for the first year, we could still use the studio in school, but they have really rigorous regulation about mask. So like, yeah, it was super crazy. So I barely really met any real people during the first year.
Host: Yeah, that's the thing. It's almost easier in Zoom, because you don't have to worry about putting on the full body suit and freaking out and being in a space. And sometimes they wouldn't let people be in for a certain amount of time. It was just very complicated. I think that's why everyone--it was hard for everyone, I think. Mentally. And just making work. Unless you had a house upstate and you had a huge studio, and then it was great. For people in the city, it wasn't that great. So when did your work--I mean, was it grad school that your work started to take shape of what it looks like? I mean, I only know it from recently--seeing it fairly recently. So when did you start to get really interested in this sort of physical, lyrical abstraction? Because they're pretty impressive. And there's a sort of beauty to the movement in them and the layering, and--yeah.
Yuan Fang: I guess because it was--so before, I didn't really get a chance to look at paintings in person before I moved to New York. But after I moved to the city, and then--in undergrad, I don't have that much homework or stuff to do outside of class. And then my school ID can get me into all the museums for free. So I just started to go to museums, especially the MOMA or The Met. And that was when I started to be drawn to New York School abstract expressionism paintings. So I think when I started to paint, I just very heavily influenced by those people. And because the reason why I started to do drawings and then paintings is I--I think as a young adult, you're going through a lot of difficulties or some depression periods in your lifetime. So that was when I started to do drawing. It is to escape from the reality that I was in, if I have to say it that way. So I think when I started to make paintings, I quickly realized that I don't want to paint anything that you can see in real life. And that is abstraction. So I guess my work is always--never changed that much. But in terms of the style, languages, maybe it has developed over the years. But yeah, I think I make it very clear at the beginning that this is the stuff I am going to do.
Host: Yeah, so--well, let's get into a little bit of the vibe of it. So it's got this sort of dark heaviness to it. But the movement feels light and airy in a way. And then I've--in reading about--and like I said before, I don't know if it's true or not--but you're channeling certain emotions, or anxiety, or anxiousness, or joy, or whatever it is that you're using to fuel the movement of the painting. How do you--how were you drawn to that kind of aesthetic outside of its relationship to abstract expressionism or things like that, but the overall feeling of it, especially in some of those shots of you in the studio with multiple paintings around, and then all the paint on the floor, and that sort of dark--it just feels heavy. Like the palette feels heavy, but the movement feels light.
Yuan Fang: I don't know how to describe the movement as light, because I feel like my paintings are always very intense, I guess. I guess it's because I always grew up in--I grew up in a very fast developing city like Shenzhen, and then I moved to New York, which is also a very fast paced city. So I guess I'm always surrounded by a displacement of my surroundings. And that kind of results in the movements I am doing in my painting, because when I paint, I don't really think about the movements or stuff like that. I just paint. I don't know if the movements are light, because I'm always trying to create a chaotic relationship between those shapes or layers in my paintings to--as a metaphor of the living condition of human being. Because think about everything we have been through over the years. Like COVID, or the war, and stuff. There's always a sense of unpredictability in our lives. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. And I feel like I want to kind of depict that sense of turbulence in my painting.
Host: Yeah. Well, if you take that description--if you look at a painter like Julie Mehratu, I feel like there's a lot of chaos and movement and complexity that mirrors our society of--as far as like data and information and the business and the sort of--the saturation of all this stuff happening. Which is funny because in your paintings there is--does really feel like this connection to abstraction expressionism and Lee Krasner and Frankenthaler or Pollock or people like that who are making that kind of work. Which feels a little separate from the new media digital kind of information-based sublime or craziness that's in our world. Is that something you're intentionally going for--is having the paintings quote a time from before that era of the sort of new media stuff?
Yuan Fang: I don't really like correlated to the new media eras or--or at a post internet... any of them.
Host: But we're living in that.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, but I feel I'm pretty extreme in some way. I'm really just kind of old fashioned. So my process is very intuitive, and I never make any sketches. So I don't really know how should I relate to those new media and stuff.
Host: So it's basically coming from almost an unconscious movement and play of paint on the canvas?
Yuan Fang: Yeah.
Host: Well, it--yeah. And that's the thing. It doesn't have to pictorially relate to that at all. It can just relate to the--I mean, you're a person living in this current world, so no matter what, you're kind of taking in today's society, and making the work that you're making in relation to that, whether it's literal, or whether it's subconscious. But I definitely see this sort of nexus of lots of layers and movement, and action and all that's--all those ingredients kind of feel--I don't want to say busy--busy is not the right word, but--active. And the paintings feel very active.
Yuan Fang: Yeah.
Host: Do you listen to stuff while you work?
Yuan Fang: Sometimes I do, but mostly, I don't.
Host: When you do, does it affect it? Or is it Lady Gaga?
Yuan Fang: No, it just some music that--because my... so I paint six to eight hours per day, which is not a long time. But when I paint, I don't really think about--I cannot do other stuff when I paint. Because I have some other painter friends--they can call their friends or doing other stuff when they paint. So I will say, I cannot. So all the music I'm listening to, just to bring some energy into my body. But I don't really listen-listen to the music when I paint.
Host: So would you say that you have certain music that you will put on if you need that energy that might be totally different than stuff you listen to when you go home?
Yuan Fang: Yeah, yeah. It's just kind of like gym music--the music you listen to when you're on elliptical, or--I don't know.
Host: Right. Yeah, yeah. It stuff that gets the blood pumping. For sure. Yeah, it's not super--
Yuan Fang: Tasteful.
Host: Yeah, like Beethoven, or... like Moonlight Serenade puts you to sleep. Yeah, you need something that's kind of--gets you going. I feel like there--I mean, the paintings that you make have a sort of sonic feel to them as well. I mean, I have this problem where when I look at paintings, I just think of music. It just happens. So I can't help but do that. And that your work has such movement and it's--the scale of it, it just feels sonic in a sense. Like, they don't feel like silent paintings, in other words.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, I feel like they're very noisy paintings.
Host: Yeah, yeah. And layered. Like there's a lot of instruments playing, or sounds at the same time. But they go together. They're not completely disparate. Like it's kind of works, but it's confusing a little bit. That's not a bad thing. Like Turner. I love Turner paintings. And they're--
Yuan Fang: Oh, I love Turner.
Host: They're swirling and confusing but beautiful and sublime. And it's a mix of that stuff together. Are there any other painters outside of the ones that you mentioned with abstraction and stuff that you're really inspired by?
Yuan Fang: I love Francis Bacon... Yeah, cuz I feel like in his painting, he just let those very chaotic parts concentrating on very small part of his painting, and the painting--his painting have a lot of spatial relationship. But also they are very dark, intense. And yeah, I love Bacon.
Host: Yeah, and they have that heaviness too, that I think your work has. It kind of feels weighted. I don't know if you remember, but when you were at the the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, did they have the Las Meninas room? With all those studies of Las Meninas?
Yuan Fang: I couldn't remember. I was like, 11 or 12.
Host: Yeah, that was a long time ago. I mean, that museum's incredible. I was there, I don't know, right before COVID. And I was blown away. But my favorite all time painting, at least number one or number two, probably number one, is Guernica. And I could see--
Yuan Fang: Oh, I was gonna say that. Yeah, I remember seeing that.
Host: Yeah, I could totally see you being interested in that.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. I love that painting.
Host: Yeah, there's a lot of conceptual heaviness to it as well. But it's got this sort of monochromatic straightforwardness to it. But the movement in that paintings--and anyways, I can talk about that forever. I taught a whole class on that painting for a semester. It's--there's a lot in it. So what are you working on now? These days? Do you have anything coming up?
Yuan Fang: Yeah, actually--so I just moved into this new residency. I'm still settling in and trying to get used to the new environment. But I have a new show coming up in--which is gonna open at the end of May. It's in London, so it's going to opening during London Gallery Weekend. In Skarstedt Gallery.
Host: Are you gonna go for that?
Yuan Fang: Yeah, of course.
Host: That's exciting.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. And then I have works in the upcoming Hong Kong Art Basel.
Host: Nice. Will you go to that? That's not--
Yuan Fang: No. No. It's like 16 hours flight. It's too crazy.
Host: Yeah, it's a long ways.
Yuan Fang: And I have the London show deadline, so probably not going.
Host: Do you speak any Cantonese, or just Mandarin?
Yuan Fang: Oh, my Cantonese is getting super bad. It was not great at beginning, because I'm not really good at learning languages. But now, Cantonese, for me, it's almost I cannot understand or speak.
Host: I don't think you could speak as good of English as you do and say that you're not good at learning languages. That's not fair.
Yuan Fang: Cantonese is--because in Shenzhen, it's--although it's in Canton, it's filled with immigrants. So my parents don't speak Cantonese at home, and in school or in daily life, we don't speak Cantonese.
Host: Right. it's mostly Mandarin.
Yuan Fang: Yeah. So I don't really speak any Cantonese.
Host: Right. Yeah, I want to go to Hong Kong. I think it'd be a fun place to visit.
Yuan Fang: Have you been?
Host: No.
Yuan Fang: Oh.
Host: I haven't been anywhere in Asia besides Japan.
Yuan Fang: Oh, you should go to Hong Kong. It's fun.
Host: I know. It's hard, because when my family goes, we go to Japan, and it's a long flight, so we end up spending all our time there. And we never really go anywhere else.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, but Japan and Hong Kong is only like three hours flight. If you're in Asia, and for a while, it's better--you can just go.
Host: I know, I know. I got to do it. Yeah, it would be fun. All right. Here's my last question. You ready? This is--I saved the most important one for the last. Favorite restaurant in New York City?
Yuan Fang: I love this Omakase place in Tribeca called Sushi Ichimura. And--yeah, that's my favorite restaurant, if I have unlimited money.
Host: Okay. And it was very nice to meet and talk. And Oh, I guess the last question would be where people can--I guess Instagram's the best place for people to follow your work and to see what you're up to?
Yuan Fang: Yes. I used to have a website, but now I kind of stopped updating it.
Host: Yeah, I think a lot of people are in that boat.
Yuan Fang: Yeah, cuz I think in a website, you have the obligation to put all of your work, even like earlier works, on your website. And that kind of creates--I don't know. It kind of makes me anxious, because I feel like--some of my older work I'm like, Do I really want people to see them?
Host: All right, here's my last, last question. What do the characters of your name mean?
Yuan Fang: Oh, this is a funny one. So my family name, which is Fang actually means "square" in Chinese. And then my given name, Yuan, actually it's pronounced as the same as the character of "circle" in Chinese.
Host: Oh, Circle Square?
Yuan Fang: So in Chinese, my--because... Yeah. And also, in Chinese, we do family name first and then given name second. So in Chinese, my name literally sounds like Square Circle.
Host: That's pretty good.
Yuan Fang: Yeah.
Host: It's geometric. Yeah, it's very geometric.
Yuan Fang: And abstract. It's like abstract. Geometric abstraction.
Host: Yes. Definitely I'm not like a claim geometry abstract painter. But yeah.
Yuan Fang: Right, right. Well, it was very nice to get to know you and to talk, and thanks so much for doing the podcast.
Host: Thank you for inviting me this. I feel so honored.
Yuan Fang: Oh, it's a pleasure. Thank you.
Host: Thank you.
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Wrap-up
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