Yin Xin’s background provides an interesting insight to his work. Born in 1959 in a remote Muslim town in western China, he grew up in Urumqi and was exposed to the different cultures and religions along the Silk Road. This, coupled with the political propaganda during his time, inspired him to paint. After the end of the Cultural Revolution he started his formal art education and taught art but eventually felt so suffocated by the outdated and rigid style in China that he left in 1988 to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Faculty of Art in Australia. Subsequently he travelled around Europe, and made Paris, his “new beginning”, his home city in 1994. Since then, Yin Xin has embraced the western imagery and created his own form of expression that combines both Eastern and Western cultures. He employs western techniques to paint different facets of China based on his own feelings and perspective. By using a mostly muted palette that mirrors old photographs, he injects in his work a feeling of nostalgia and an atmosphere that is reminiscent of Old Shanghai. Just like how he was instantly fascinated by the art and culture in Europe when he first arrived, he wanted to capture the elegance and sophistication of the East-meets-West culture in China during the colonial era. His work is classical-contemporary, and highly mesmerizing because it is both mysterious and timeless.

-Connoisseur Art Gallery
Image: © Yin Xin
Courtesy of the artist and Connoisseur Art Gallery