Born in a family of musicians in Beijing, Fan Yan was a classically trained violinist and viola player from a young age, while at the same time she was drawn to painting. She came to Hong Kong to study at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1987. After graduation, she played with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for 20 years. In 2011, she began to devote herself to painting, realising her life’s dream. Fan folds and dyes rice paper to divulge patterns reflective of the repetitive nature of music score. With this experimental artistic practice, she constantly explores the interpretation of various elements of music with a new unique visual language. In 2020 she developed a Music Series called Polyphonies which won a number of awards, namely the UOB Art Academy’s Art in Ink 2020, and the Ink Global 2020 award. She has also exhibited in Korea, Singapore, and Russia.
