Chin Yuen | Elevation

ArtXchange Gallery presents Elevation, a solo exhibition featuring maximalist painter Chin Yuen. With vibrant colors and expressive movement, Yuen creates uplifting and dynamic compositions. Contrasting hues, shapes, and textures are layered in dense, undulating patterns, creating abstracted landscapes and sinuous forms that challenge the conventions of composition and balance. 

While creating these new works, Yuen immersed herself in painting as a refuge from personal and global tragedies. In turn, she hopes that these paintings create moments of joy, beauty and hope for viewers. “This work demonstrates my conviction to reach a better state of being by creating something beautiful and positive,” writes the artist. The theme of ‘elevation’ demonstrates Yuen’s desire to use art “to uplift and nourish myself and others.” 

Yuen’s paintings begin with the energetic pouring and dripping of paint to create spontaneous backgrounds that inspire her to respond. After using layers of paint and masking to define and enhance forms, shapes are then etched with rippling lines and patterns using a variety of unique tools. Yuen sees each painting as a ‘puzzle’ that resolves over time through both intuitive and technical analysis. 

As more time is spent with one of Yuen’s paintings, hints and clues emerge that allude to the variety of the artist’s references. Rhythmic layering and surprising shapes derive from the artist’s interest in music, particularly jazz with its improvisation and complexity. In other works, small textures and large, rolling lines draw connections to the natural world. Having lived in six countries throughout her life, Yuen has absorbed a wide range of influences, lending a global perspective to her aesthetic and artistic influences. 

Born in Malaysia, Yuen studied in Singapore and England before moving to Canada to pursue her BFA from Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design and MFA from the University of Victoria, Canada. She has traveled extensively, including years spent teaching art in Japan and Italy. Yuen’s diverse cultural exposures are an artistic asset that continually inspires and shapes her creative process. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in galleries in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan. Corporate collections and commissions include Boston Children’s Hospital, Orlando Health Medical Office Building, Vancouver Art Gallery, and many more.