About the Artist
Yutong is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, and sculpture. Her practice moves fluidly between media, treating each as a means of inquiry rather than a fixed discipline, and is characterized by a sustained attention to psychological nuance and the tactile properties of material. She draws out the quiet emotional registers that surface through texture and form.
Yutong holds a degree in Visual Arts (Studio) from the University of California, San Diego, where she graduated with highest distinction. Her work has been exhibited at Oolong Gallery in Solana Beach, California.
Drifting
The Drifting series brings non-Western art forms into a predominantly Western context, recasting them through contemporary techniques. By extending the paintings into three dimensions and incorporating raw materials, the work treats both surface and process as part of its concept, blurring the traditional boundaries of painting.
The series draws on Chinese painting and calligraphy — traditions long tied to retreat from the everyday and a closeness to nature. Its landscapes are not depictions of reality but expressions of that sensibility, where each brushstroke holds its own vitality and reveals something of the artist's character. Fluid gesture and shifts of color work to capture what resists representation, connecting past and present, the tangible and the ethereal, and inviting a more contemplative way of looking.
Traces
The Traces series investigates the psychology of color and the materiality of the brushstroke, attentive to how perspective and arrangement come to suggest character and thought. Working against the habitual ways we read everyday life, the series draws attention to what ordinarily goes unnoticed. Through the recurring motifs of memory and time, it opens onto questions of reality and perception.
Frames of varying scale and form introduce an element of complexity and chance, while life-sized subjects preserve a sense of immediacy. Repeated, blended strokes yield a hazy, unsettled surface and a fluid, dripping texture that, set against soft pastel tones, sustains a subdued and melancholic atmosphere — inviting the viewer to pause, look again, and reconsider the overlooked.
Realism?Surrealism
This series uses surrealism to convey emotions that go unspoken. Balance portrays a glass teetering on the edge of a table, an illusion of stability that masks the chaos beneath. The Grove depicts a stand of trees bent against a raging storm, symbolizing how social norms and expectations pressure individuals to conform.
- Yutong is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, and sculpture. Her practice moves fluidly between media, treating each as a means of inquiry rather than a fixed discipline, and is characterized by a sustained attention to psychological nuance and the tactile properties of material. She draws out the quiet emotional registers that surface through texture and form. Yutong holds a degree in Visual Arts (Studio) from the University of California, San Diego, where she graduated with highest distinction. Her work has been exhibited at Oolong Gallery in Solana Beach, California.
- The Drifting series brings non-Western art forms into a predominantly Western context, recasting them through contemporary techniques. By extending the paintings into three dimensions and incorporating raw materials, the work treats both surface and process as part of its concept, blurring the traditional boundaries of painting. The series draws on Chinese painting and calligraphy — traditions long tied to retreat from the everyday and a closeness to nature. Its landscapes are not depictions of reality but expressions of that sensibility, where each brushstroke holds its own vitality and reveals something of the artist's character. Fluid gesture and shifts of color work to capture what resists representation, connecting past and present, the tangible and the ethereal, and inviting a more contemplative way of looking.
- Drifting I. 38 × 24 in. Oil, acrylic, and silica sand on canvas. 2023.
- Drifting II. 38 × 24 in. Oil and paper on canvas. 2023.
- Drifting III. 40 × 40 in. Oil, acrylic, and beading on canvas. 2023.
- Drifting IV. 44 × 22 in. Wood frame, oil, silver leaf, acrylic, and sewing on canvas. 2023.
- The Traces series investigates the psychology of color and the materiality of the brushstroke, attentive to how perspective and arrangement come to suggest character and thought. Working against the habitual ways we read everyday life, the series draws attention to what ordinarily goes unnoticed. Through the recurring motifs of memory and time, it opens onto questions of reality and perception. Frames of varying scale and form introduce an element of complexity and chance, while life-sized subjects preserve a sense of immediacy. Repeated, blended strokes yield a hazy, unsettled surface and a fluid, dripping texture that, set against soft pastel tones, sustains a subdued and melancholic atmosphere — inviting the viewer to pause, look again, and reconsider the overlooked.
- Traces Series I. 11 × 14 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.
- Traces Series II. 12 × 16 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.
- Traces Series III. 10 × 10 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.
- Traces Series IV. 18 × 24 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.
- Traces Series V. 10 × 10 in. Oil, clay, and paper on Canvas. 2022.
- Traces Series VI. 10 × 10 in. Oil and silica on Canvas. 2022.
- This series uses surrealism to convey emotions that go unspoken. Balance portrays a glass teetering on the edge of a table, an illusion of stability that masks the chaos beneath. The Grove depicts a stand of trees bent against a raging storm, symbolizing how social norms and expectations pressure individuals to conform.
- Balance. 10 × 10 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.
- The Grove. 16 × 20 in. Oil on Canvas. 2022.