Visit the Studio with QiuChen Fan

With crisp lines and bold color, artist QiuChen Fan paints a surreal world all her own. In shapes inspired by paper cutouts, Fan’s pieces are both vivid and distinct. Let’s take a look together inside Fan’s style and inspiration in her studio now.

What materials do you use? And why?

In recent years, I mainly work on stretched canvas with acrylic paint. I appreciate the fast-drying quality of acrylic, which allows me to apply the second and third layers of paint in the same day.

Painting was not my major back in school. I was a drawing major, but our studios were mixed with the painting studios on the same floor, which provided me studio-visit chances with my painting peers. At that time, I really enjoyed gestural line drawing with materials like charcoal, ink, and tempera, while acrylic/oil painting for me was more about the covering and stacking of colors. Since I got a “C” in my foundation color class, I always thought that color wasn’t my thing.

However, a few years after graduating from school, I suddenly decided to go out of my comfort zone and I began to paint again. I was intrigued by the technical practice of using brush to create an acrylic surface of flat and rich colors. Sometimes it felt like torture but, now after a few years of devoting myself to these little brush movements that are repeated delicately, I have found the pleasure in the process.

What is your artwork about? What does it speak to?

Most of my pieces talk about people and relevant topics, such as our consumer culture, social behaviors, and contemporary lifestyles. As in the series called Manikins (2017-present), those well-dressed figures symbolize the glamorous side of our “civilized” social lives —— our excessive concern about how people would understand us through the way we present ourselves. The reduction of figurative details to abstract geometric shapes represents a “low-resolution-interpretation”, such as people’s uncertainty about themselves and their simplistic judgments toward others, especially under the impact of media and commercial systems.

I bring questions to my paintings like: what does it mean to be “well-dressed”? What look makes you a “nerd”, a “natural beauty”, too “conservative”, too “pretentious” or too “feminine”? Because we still judge people through these visual cues, no matter how rude or ignorant. Figures in my paintings are either blended into backgrounds or into each other. This intends to express our confusion and anxiety from chasing a sense of existence and attachment through a whole set of prescribed social manners, such as how to wear, how to talk, and how to behave. I consider my paintings as portraits of the word “stereotype” and I invite people to use their accepted knowledge to enrich it and continuously make their own stories.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I am inspired by the situations we live in –– news or social events included sometimes. One of them was the news about Anna Delvey years ago. It’s really a contemporary version of The Million Pound Bank Note story, and it’s real. Unfortunately, many people believe what they see or, really, only what they want to believe. It’s this significance of appearance that we as a society place on ourselves and others that I observe and address in my Manikins series. After all, how difficult can it be to create a personality based on just matching criteria from fashion magazines?

As far as my style, I was strongly influenced by collage art, digital printing, and graphic design –– especially my most recent paintings. In design, we are drawn to the limited use of color and minimal compositions –– this approach helped me build a sci-fi-like environment on canvas. As we live in the age of technological supremacy, I make fun of ourselves by making a laborious/analogue mimic of digital manipulation, like photoshop cutout, through the machine-like painted surface without stroke-marks at all. Andy Warhol said: “I want to be a machine.” I would say: “I want to pretend like I am a machine.”

What is your typical routine when you get to the studio? Walk us through a typical studio day.

I don’t typically have a studio day routine. I try not to burn myself out with long hours working in the studio, like when I was in school. I used to love working quietly by myself after midnight, but now I prefer to live my life based on a more regular norm. Although I wish I could work 2-3 hours every morning in my studio and push other things off to the afternoon, my schedule doesn’t always work like that.

So if I could work in my studio during the day, I would get my painting tools prepared on the side table, open the windows, fill myself a bottle of water, turn on my favorite music station on Pandora, close the studio door, and then, finally, I am ready to start!

Do you work at a particular size or scale? Why?

I personally prefer larger format paintings because this way my whole body can be involved in the creation process. I also enjoy larger paintings because I enjoy seeing my audience being immersed within my paintings in a room. The biggest stretched-canvas size I’ve ever worked on was 36”x48”.

What are you currently working on? Share with us what is exciting to you about this most recent work.

While working on the Manikin series, I started another series called Habitats. It explores the relationships between humans, nature and technology. I use elements of plant imagery and color blocks as metaphors. Although likeness is not a subject matter in my work, I have added realistic representation into this series. For the newest one I’m now working on within the series, I try to expand the boundary between realism and surrealism.

Which artists most inspire you and your work?

Kara Walker’s paper-cut figure silhouettes inspired me a lot. Her idea of “nothing tells more” is exactly what my abstract portraits want to say. Our form of expression exists in between highly representational and highly symbolic, which means this kind of art leaves a lot of space for personal interpretation and reflection. By erasing the identifying details in almost all my characters, viewers are invited to complete the scenario by using their own experiences. In such ways, personal and spontaneous conversations will be created between each of my pieces and the audience.

Also, David Hockney’s use of fast-drying acrylic paint portraying the sun-lit, clean-contoured suburban landscapes of California fascinates me. I haven’t tried his masking technique of painting using rollers. I am still sticking with the traditional application of paint by brush.

Do you balance another job in addition to being an artist?

I occasionally accept some graphic design and commercial illustration commissions as a freelancer. If the project interests me, I would normally go for it, but it really depends on how much time and effort I can promise. Art making is hard work. Design and illustration also require, a huge output of time, brain power and craft skills as well as communication skills.

At the same time, I’m a housewife who’s bad at time management. I don’t need to eat at a certain time, but my husband is the kind of person who has to eat at 12 for lunch right after his morning session of work. Therefore, it becomes a challenge to balance the time in my studio and preparing food in the kitchen, but I’m working on it.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this special peek into QiuChen's creative environment! Even in a virtual age, we encourage all budding collectors to take the time to connect with the artists you love directly.

We want to remind you of our awesome artist messaging feature directly on the Art in Res site––reach out now and foster that creative energy! Have more questions for QiuChen on her art and practice? Follow up with her directly via our messenger. We know she’ll be thrilled to answer any questions you might have. Ask about a specific painting or about her specific process in general––either approach works!