Ming Ying

Ming Ying (b.1995) is a London based artist known for her vivid and abstract depictions of groups and individuals within domestic and public settings. Her works are an exploration of the feelings of alienation or marginalization experienced by individuals who often find themselves distanced from their surroundings.

 

As a London-based artist who was born in China, Ming Ying reflects on the experiences of different races, cultures, and distinct social classes within new surroundings. Ying’s paintings reference society’s quotidian moments, flashy social scenes, drama and films to explore themes of loneliness and desire. By employing distorted strokes, a vibrant colour palette and layering her paint, Ying seeks to establish romantic and psychedelic scenes that are based on the real world, implying a vision of desire. The contrast between the eye catching colour of her subjects and their indistinct faces, often blurred by impasto paint, symbolises the complex tension between sensations of being present, yet absent and alienated within one’s surrounding.

 

The work attempts to create a dreamy scenario which toes the line between figuration and abstraction, forming a world which is parallel to, yet separated from reality. Through depicting the mundane and memorable moments of her characters’ lives, Ying materialises the existence of marginalisation, alienation and homogeneity to ultimately create an opportunity for viewers to resonate with the subjects in the paintings.

 

Ming Ying received her MA degree from Royal College of Art in 2020. In recent years her work has been awarded and shortlisted for a number of prestigious prizes including: First prize of “Effect Edge” International Juried Exhibition (2019); Winner of Khojaly Peace Prize for Art (2017); Chadwell Award (2020) Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize (2018); Ashurst Emerging artist prize (2018).

 

Her work has been featured in a number of important shows including: “London Grads Show”, Saatchi Gallery in London (2020), “021”, Shanghai & Beijing (2021), “Effect Edge” in Katonah Museum of Art in New York (2019), and so on.