Bio
Yameng was born (1982) to a family of artists in China. Once a respected and valued profession, her family's lives were upended like that of so many artists and intellectuals by the Cultural Revolution. Her grandfather, an accomplished artist, faced persecution and ostracization which eventually led to his death.These events rippled down the generations, culminating in her family's unlikely emigration to South Africa when Yameng was only 11 years old.
Her family left behind one of the world’s greatest social firestorms only to unwittingly step into another. The year was 1992, Nelson Mandela had been released from prison and South Africa faced a hopeful, if uncertain future in the ruins of Apartheid.
The juxtapositions of these two worlds could not be more extreme, or more revealing. The unlikely mix of these two cultures proved fertile soil for a young creative soul. For Yameng, the act of art making is an act of defiance, an attempt to reclaim a heritage that had been taken.
Artist statement
As a child, I was fascinated by my grandmother’s delicate paintings and how, with one quick brushstroke, she conjured the shape of a sparrow or chrysanthemum petal. While my work is abstract, my family history and the seething juxtapositions of my given and adopted cultures form the subconscious layers of the work. I work loosely with paint, raw pigments and charcoal, utilizing a range of dynamic mark-making on large sheets of paper, raw canvas or wood.
I draw inspiration ranging from the inky landscapes of Zhang Daqian, to Bonnard’s luminant oil paintings, and the textures and patterns on the costumes of African ceremony-dancers. My most recent series explores stories from folklore and children’s literature as a way of understanding childhood fantasies, as well as feelings of being trapped by cultural norms.