Min Yiyao

Biography

Born in Xi’an, Shanxi Province and graduating from Xi’an Fine Art Academy Min Yiyao is the latest portraiture artist at Ode To Art. His figurative works have been featured in major exhibitions in China, with solo and group exhibitions spanning Beijing, Xiamen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taipei, Belgium, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Singapore. He promises to be a worthy addition to Ode To Art’s collection of Chinese artists.

In Min’s works, the language of the technique draws the viewer rather that the image itself. They seem to draw on certain elements of fauvism in an attempt to move beyond a mere impressionistic view. This is even more interesting on portraiture works such as Min’s.

That the technique serves as the primary focus is intriguing. It is not to say that the arresting images on Min’s canvas are any less impressive. However, it questions whether this is a deliberate attempt by the artist to employ a different language of artistic communication. With seemingly wild brushstrokes, he manages to capture light and depth. The random strokes’ play on the canvas unwittingly forming an image that thought did not prior define. He limits himself to a palette of colours that are exceedingly dreary, but which consequentially, serves to highlight this exact use.

Indeed, Min’s works are fascinating because the viewer experiences a reversal of the norms that are expected of a portraiture piece. Instantly, the quality of distance is one that is experienced. The figures seem to be looking into mirrors in self-reflective gazes, pondering over a perennial existential dilemma. They have enclosed themselves within their own mirrored images with a ceaseless resonance of a single thought that does not transmit to the viewer. It is this deliberate disengagement that forces the viewer to crave for another mode of interaction with the art. And it is this self-inclusiveness of Min’s art that makes his work provocative to the eye.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006   Goal-Contemporary Art, Beijing
2005   Deep Space-Contemporary Art, Xiamen
2001   Close You and Me, Xi'an
2000   Drifted Focus, Xi'an

Selected Group Exhibitions
2007   Taipei International Art Exposition
2007   Shoreman Art International Beijing
2007   Uncertainly-Two Artists Contemporary Art Exhibition,Dashanzi
2007   Youth in Water-Ten Artists Exhibition, Jiuchang, Beijing 
2006   Fearless Valliant-Contemporary Art Exhibition,Xiamen
2006   Art Beijing 2006,International Art Exposition,Beijing
2006   Unreal East, Belgium
2006   Dialogue-China, UK
2004   Irrationality-Contemporary Art Exposition,Xiamen
2003   Eclecticism,Shanghai
2002   Images·Coordinates,Xi’an
2002   Raft of Medusa,Vancouver,Canada
2001   Exchange Sights, Australia
1999   Guide-Chinese Contemporary Art, Singapore
1999   Memory City-Modern Art Exhibition, Nanjing