In her debut solo exhibition, Xinyan Wang meditates on the landscapes of memory. Excavating her personal experiences and childhood memories, the artist turns inward in order to consider our deep-rooted connection to the natural world around us.
This new body of work is the first Wang created after returning to her hometown of Beijing, having spent several years abroad during her studies. She found that, although the emotional core of home remained unchanged, the physical landscape of her childhood was utterly transformed. “The fields, trees and open spaces I once played in had been replaced by towering buildings and dense urban development. What I had long taken for granted had quietly disappeared, absorbed by the city’s expansion.” In working through the cognitive dissonance this produced, her practice became a way of reconnecting with fond memories of her motherland and reclaiming what was lost in this new reality.
Painting natural landscapes became a healing process, allowing me to reconstruct my connection to nature within an environment that felt increasingly detached from it. These moments are not just personal recollections but reflections on broader changes in urban life, where rapid modernisation often distances us from the natural world.
Xinyan Wang
Treeside Talk
2024
50 x 40 cm
£2,300 ex VAT
Xinyan Wang
Beneath the Deep, Above the Dunes
2025
80 x 100 cm
£4,500 ex VAT
Xinyan Wang
First Step on Mother Land
2025
150 x 120 cm
£6,900 ex VAT
Xinyan Wang
Ode to the Undersea
2025
50 x 40 cm
£2,300 ex VAT
Xinyan Wang
A Touch of Moonlight
2025
35 x 25 cm
£1,500 ex VAT
Maintaining her own connection to the landscape is important to the artist, who has made a ritual of walking in nature and collecting shells from different beaches.
This serves as a reminder that we all form part of an intricate, interconnected web of being – a fact which is easily overlooked when surrounded by the built environment in modern metropolises. Ode to the Undersea was inspired by the sight of sunrise gilding the ocean waves, with its underwater ecosystem suggested by the spiky spines of a sea urchin. In Treeside Talk, she creates subtle parallels between the sibilance of the tree’s leaves rustling in the wind and the sounds of a whispered conversation under its canopy. While inspired by the natural world around her, Wang’s paintings are interiorised, emotional landscapes, capturing the feelings or memories evoked by a place rather than the place itself. They are motivated by a nostalgic sense of the sublime, a longing for what once was, or could be, rather than what can be seen through the window.
My painting process is both deliberate and instinctive – the deliberate aspect is rooted in memory, while the instinctive emerges from my immediate responses in the moment. A painting is complete when it captures the emotional weight of my recollections, suspending them between past and present.
The artist often begins in a sketchbook, where she records “words, images and fleeting fragments of memory”. She used to keep a traditional sketchbook, but has recently been using a digital one that allows her to collect and collage photographs, watercolour sketches and written thoughts that inform her paintings. “Since my work is deeply tied to the act of remembering, this stage feels like keeping a personal journal, an attempt to gather and make sense of elusive emotions and mental images. I then create small watercolour studies, using colour to recreate the mood and atmosphere of these recollections, immersing myself fully in their emotional landscapes.”
Wang’s painting process is responsive and intuitive, rather than premeditated, allowing unexpected forms and ideas to surface on the canvas.
She always begins with a highly diluted pigment wash, “letting the colours flow freely and settle organically, as if allowing memory to take on a physical form through these fluid traces”. From there, she uses oil paint to emphasise or add to the existing marks, “gradually uncovering figures, natural elements and other emerging forms”. The resulting compositions suggest the overlaying of memories or the absurdist logic of dreams, what she describes as a “soft, ethereal and inclusive visual realm, a sanctuary that offers an escape from rationality and urban discipline”.
Where human figures appear, they form part of the overall tapestry of nature.
The artist considers them “spiritual echoes” of herself and the people she has known, “serving as a bridge between memory and nature, floating between reality and reverie”. They are shown in gentle communion with the natural world, at one with their surroundings rather than imposing their mastery over land and sea, flora and fauna. These works encourage each viewer to consider their own environmental rootedness, their relationship to nature and how their sense of self may be impacted by their surroundings. In an era when the cataclysmic effects of climate change are becoming increasingly evident, the idea of finding better ways for humans to coexist within their ecosystems could not be more timely.
Xinyan Wang (b. 2001) lives and works in Beijing. She holds a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Arts, London. Her painting practice revolves around the themes of inner landscapes and childhood memories, forming part of a personal journey of self-reflection that invites viewers to consider their own. Wang’s work has been shown in group exhibitions including A Soft Tension, Chilli Art Projects, London; Daylight Cadenza, The Shop House Gallery, Hong Kong; Shifting Scales, RCA Kensington Courtyard, London; and Over the River, ISB Gallery, Providence, USA.
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Eden: People+Planet is a global nonprofit with a profound commitment to creating a sustainable future for people and the planet. Through collaborative design and planning, they are partnering with local communities, stakeholders, regional authorities and global partners to restore entire ecosystems, mitigate the effects of climate change and strengthen community resilience for decades to come.