The Torrent & The Fold

4 – 31 July 2025
Curated by Louis Blanc-Francard and Wenhui Hao

Featuring: Ji Won Cha, Kristy M Chan, Dingyue Luna Fan, Lau Yee Vanessa Fong, Xiaoyi Han, Wen-hui Hao, Shuang Jiang, Amy Hui Li, Xi Liu, Xinran Liu, Wenhai Ning, Seohyun Oh, Freya Fang Wang and Xuanru Wang

Co-curated by Wenhui Hao and Louis Blanc-Francard, The Torrent & The Fold brings together fourteen emerging artists from East Asia. Capturing a distinct moment in abstract painting, and shaped by intercultural exchange, personal narrative and shared context, the show reflects a shared desire to navigate identity, memory and place through form. Many of the artists are recent graduates of the Royal College of Art and part of a broader London-based cohort. Several now work in studios within the same industrial complex beyond the Walthamstow marshes, and a close-knit community has formed – one grounded in friendship, care, and mutual support.

This exhibition investigates how the accelerated pace of life and technological innovation have defined this wave of abstraction, one that is anchored in gestural and intuitive painting. Examining abstraction not only as its own visual language but also as a philosophical enquiry, it intersects in a dynamic interplay between history and culture, individual and collective, past and present, and East and West. At its core, The Torrent & The Fold celebrates the cultural richness embodied by artists who create far from their homelands, navigating a contemporary existence marked by displacement and continual movement. Drawing inspiration from Gilles Deleuze’s theory of ‘nomadic thought’ (1973), the exhibition foregrounds the fluidity and instability of identity: it proposes that both individual and collective selves exist in ‘moments of flux’, resisting fixed definitions bound by time or place. While abstraction serves as this group’s common form of expression, each artist brings a distinct visual language informed by their own experience of modernity. They are united by a commitment to abstraction as a way to explore questions of memory, belonging, and what it means to exist in an ever-shifting world.

Writer and academic Miranda Jing Chance offers reflections on individual works in the show:

Co-curator and artist Wenhui Hao works on multiple canvases at any given time, turning to each in short bursts of energy. She folds her lived experience into the numerous underpainted layers of the canvas, creating a rich, jewel-toned and atmospheric emotional landscape. In this transfer of emotion, You are my ever-suspended sharp untouchable mirror (2025) becomes a prompt, a catalyst, a site of transformation for Hao.

Hao is not alone in constructing the artwork as an active participant complicit in its own creation. Kristy Chan, describes her work as “doing something to you, and you are doing something to it”—these artists treat the surface as more than a passive receptacle, they position the painting as an interlocutor, deeply involved in the transformation of the artist.

Unbetrayable by Shuang Jiang, who labours quietly and slowly over a picture, introduces a different temporality into the exhibition space. Trained in printmaking, Jiang brings her attention to how line can bring relief, creating pockets of vertical depth into which the eye repeatedly plummets in an exercise of vertigo.

The body emerges for these artists in different ways. Lips and tender gazes rise like plumes of smoke from the painstakingly drawn details in I Long to Return to the Golden Field of My Dreams (2025) by Lau Yee Vanessa Fong; Amy Hui Li transforms organza into flesh, tearing and repairing the surface in an alternating cycle of destruction and care; unidentifiable dancing figures glide across the surface of Wenhui Hao’s atmospheric worlds.

About the Artists

Ji Won Cha

Born 1997, Seoul, Korea
Lives and works in London, UK

Kristy M Chan

Born 1997, Hong Kong
Lives and works in London, UK

Dingyue Luna Fan

Born 1994, Chongqing, China
Lives and works in Montreal, Canada

Lau Yee Vanessa Fong

Born 1997, Hong Kong
Lives and works in London, UK

Xiaoyi Han

Born 1997, Dalian, China
Lives and works in New York, US

Wenhui Hao

Born 2000, Taiyuan, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Shuang Jiang

Born 1999, Dalian, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Amy Hui Li

Born 1997, Guangzhou, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Xi Liu

Born 1998, Qiqihar, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Xinran Liu

Born 1998, Chengdu, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Wenhai Ning

Born 1997 in Shanxi, China
Lives and works in Montreal, Canada

Seohyun Oh

Born in Seoul, Korea
Lives and works in London, UK

Freya Fang Wang

Born 1986, Beijing, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Xuanru Wang

Born 2000, Jingdezhen, China
Lives and works in London, UK

Ji Won Cha earned her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and completed her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2023. Ji Won’s work explores the re-articulation of the sublime in the 21st century, focusing on complex emotions of uncertainty, hope, and despair amidst themes of the unknown and loss of control. Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘An Eternity from Now,’ Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, US; Untitled Art Fairs, Latitude Gallery, Miami Beach, US; and ‘A Third Hand,’ Hurst Contemporary, London, UK. She was shortlisted for the Artsy Foundations Prize in 2024 and the Jackson’s Painting Prize in 2023. Ji Won’s work is held in collections including the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the RISD Special Collection at the Fleet Library, Providence, US.

Kristy M Chan holds a BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art (2019) and an MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art (2020). Chan’s gestural canvases use thick, layered brushstrokes to explore the complexities of “homeland” and cultural identity through abstract expressionism. Her work reflects the global diaspora experience with an intuitive and dynamic use of oil paint. Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘Night Studio,’ Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing; ‘Molehill Mountaineer,’ The Cabin, Los Angeles; and ‘Binge,’ The Artist Room and Simon Lee Gallery, London. In 2023, she was selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 China.

Dingyue Luna Fan completed an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art in 2023. Fan’s semi-abstract work is inspired by childhood memories, dreams, and mythologies, weaving fluid forms and transitional landscapes that evoke feminine vitality and ancestral resonance. Highlights of recent exhibitions include NADA New York, Harper’s, New York, US; ‘Dreamers,’ IRL Gallery, New York, US; and ‘Eco-Fobia Poetica,’ Galleria Gaburro, Milan, Italy.

Lau Yee Vanessa Fong completed her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2024, following a BFA in Fine/Studio Arts from the Art Center College of Design in 2021. Vanessa’s work is deeply influenced by Buddhist and Eastern philosophy, exploring spiritual self-healing and the search for self-identity through a modern reinterpretation of Buddhism in visual language. Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘Full Disclosure,’ D Contemporary, London, UK; ‘Malerei,’ akku Kunstplattform, Switzerland; and ‘Fantasyland,’ Twilight Contemporary, London, UK. In 2025, Fong completed the Summer Residency at Good Eye Projects in London.

Xi Liu earned an MFA at the UCL Slade School of Art in London in 2024. Liu’s artistic practice delves into the intricate dynamics of human relationships, exploring the physical, emotional, and psychological forces that shape our interactions. Recent exhibitions include ‘Time in Stillness’, A/W Space, Nanjing, China (2025); ‘Transitions’, F2T, Milan, Italy (2025); Art021 Hong Kong with Seefood Room Gallery (2024); ‘Beyond Concrete’, Hew Hood Gallery, London, UK (2024); Royal Blue Gallery, London, UK (2024); and ‘Immaterial’, Soho Revue, London, UK.

Shuang Jiang completed her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2024. Shuang’s work investigates the delicate connection between individual life and the broader living world, exploring themes of fragility, resilience, conflict, and harmony. Using abstract forms and flowing lines, she captures the transformation of life within chaos and silence. Highlights of recent exhibitions include Untitled Miami Art Fair, Ronchini Gallery, Miami, US; ‘VISIONS,’ Gallery Rosenfeld, London, UK; and ‘Transitional Traces,’ MP Birla Millennium Art Gallery, London, UK.

Amy Hui Li completed her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2023, following a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2020. Amy’s practice explores the body and emotions through an abstract visual language, using mixed media, oil, and felt on organza to challenge the traditional boundaries of painting. Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘paradise lost,’ Unit, London, UK (Solo); ‘A Trace Without A Tail,’ LINSEED, Shanghai, China; and ‘Theater of Energies,’ Arsenal Contemporary, New York, US.

Xinran Liu completed a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and earned her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art. Drawing on her personal experiences, Xinran captures fragments of personal memories on canvas. Synthesising divergent artistic genres, time periods, and modes of representation, Xinran’s paintings simultaneously invoke and destabilise their own formal and conceptual traditions, from traditional Chinese ink painting to Western excursions into abstraction and movement. The artist was shortlisted for the Chadwell Award in 2023. Recent exhibitions include ‘Paris, Texas’, Soka Art, Beijing, China; and ‘Imagined States: Chapter 2 “Intrinsicality”,’ WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong (both 2023), among others.

Wenhai Ning graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2023. His practice explores the relationship between nature and the human condition, navigating the fluid structures between image and idea. Through the reconstruction of materials, symbols, and spatial configurations, Ning engages with questions of biological evolution, cultural meaning, and imagined order. Drawing on the philosophical framework of the Five Elements, he integrates its symbolic and conceptual logic into his visual language, creating layered compositions where tension and ambiguity unfold. His work reflects a sustained inquiry into humanity’s shifting position within ecological and spiritual landscapes.

Seohyun Oh holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, completed in 2024. Oh’s practice blends philosophy and art, viewing painting as an act of cosmic ordering and transformation. Influenced by concepts such as tree spirits and vibrational energy, her work deconstructs imaginary landscapes into abstract, evolving forms. Recent exhibitions include ‘MALEREI,’ Akku Kunstplattform, Luzern, Switzerland; ‘Whispers Of The Inner Voice,’ Art021 Hong Kong Contemporary Art Fair; and ‘Of the Echoes,’ Jack Barrett, London, UK.

Freya Fang Wang’s immersive works draw on Chinese philosophy and explore the Tao, nature, and spiritual interconnectedness. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2023). Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘Making KIN,’ Studio West Gallery, London; ‘JUNCTURES,’ Chilli Art Projects, London; and ‘The Fading Spaciousness,’ Bargehouse, London. Wang was a 2025 resident at Good Eye Project and runner-up in Studio West’s Now Introducing prize.

Xuanru Wang holds an MRes in Arts and Humanities from the Royal College of Art, completed in 2024. Xuanru’s work explores the human experience of love and pathos, inspired by Aby Warburg’s concept of the “Pathosformel.” Drawing on historical films, classical painting, and literary texts, her practice is like archaeology within art history, reaffirming timeless emotional memories. Highlights of recent exhibitions include ‘The Impossible Hand,’ MONTI8 Gallery, Rome, Italy; ‘Fragments of the Future,’ The Hanger Gallery, London, UK; and the Royal College of Art Degree Show, London, UK.