Yan Kong
Yan Kong
Yan Kong
Artist's Bio
I was born 1948 in China. I came to the United States for a college education from Hong Kong in January 1967 when there were much political unrest in the British Colony. I received a full scholarship at Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, New York to study Biology. After graduation in 1971 I worked as a hospital technician and upon receiving a Green Card from the hospital’s sponsorship in 1977 I quit my job to explore art.
I learn to paint by visiting museums. I was conservative in my taste of art in the late 70s. My inspirations had been works from Jardin and Gorot, and later on Bonnard and Matisse. In the late 80s I met artists like Larry Poons and Francine Tint who had inspired me into works of abstractions. In 1998 I co-founded the Asian American Women Artists Alliance and became the Executive Director of AAWAA. I retired from AAWAA in 2012 to concentrate on my own artwork. Visit
www.aawaa.org.
Statement
Art has always been, for me, a visual experimentation where the process of making is a fearless journey unto the unknown. The satisfactions come by discoveries, surprises and taking chances. As if learning a new language the artist uses ideas, colors, sounds, visuals to arrange phrases and sentences to create communications and poetry.
-Yan Kong
Brooklyn, New York