YAFENG DUAN Introduced to the tradition of ink-wash painting by her father at an early age, Chinese artist Yafeng Duan developed her artistic instinct through close observation of nature — by tracing the enigmatic Qi, a vital force that links all living beings together. In classical Chinese philosophy, Qi (breath) is a fundamental category similar to energy in Western philosophical teachings. The captivating patterns of Duan’s abstract landscapes are ethereal footprints of Qi, observed and captured on her breathing can- vases. Her further education at the Bauhaus University in Weimar led the artist to reconsider her initial understanding of art and to develop a synthesis between formal practice and frequent rebellion against it. According to her own statement, Duan uses European techniques to give her paintings a haptic quality and physical presence.In the non-narrative abstract compositions of Yafeng Duan, colour is a language encouraging a subjective game of association that preserves the possibility of ambiguity. This explains the intuitive application of paint on her canvases: the spontaneous oscillations of Duan’s brushstrokes follow the deep breathing of her transcendental landscapes. Rather than creating them, the artist watches the elements in her paintings evolve and interact with each other. Spatial superimpositions of color fields and the interplay of linear constellations create a deeply introspective atmosphere. The artist uses color overlaps to play with the perception of space, allowing it to alternate, build and disappear.

GULNUR MUKAZHANOVA After trying different techniques while studying at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Kazakhstan and textile and surface design in Berlin Weißssensee, Gulnur Mukazhanova chose to work with felt and textiles such as lurex, silk, and velour. The endless felting process gives the artist – so she says – a strong feeling of the nomadic roots of her ancestors. Continuing her studies in Berlin and comparing European and Asian cultures, Gulnur Mukazhanova began to question issues such as traditional cultural values, identity, feminism and globalization. The process of felting and pimpling pins on lurex fabrics corresponds to the conceptual idea of the main theme of her artistic activity: „I am working on perfecting the technique and its deep meaning in my work. My works are a reflection of our Kazakh society. They try to critically illuminate the tensions between the individual, the post-no- madic developed identity, and the alienation through the global information–and media society.“ the artist states. Like portals or screens, Mukazhanova’s works invite the viewer to dream of another world where hopes and desires can be sublimated into the unconscious, but also create a space where new identities can be assumed. This is further punctuated in Mukazhanova’s triptych, Untitled (2021), where three large-scale felted paintings contain curved windows. The felted materials of grey, red, and yellow, however, give the image plane a surreal quality where reality and fantasy can merge.

JAZZ MANG Like purposely placed patina, coloured sections combine to form a large, abstract whole. Landscapes emerge from colour sediments, at times applied vigorously with a spatula, at times cautiously brushed. Besides these, delicate portraits of fine- limbed women with square shoulders in luminous, highly contrasting colours. Whether abstract or figurative, the work of South Korean-born Jazz Mang is always one thing: expressive.While still putting together her portfolio for the University of Fine Arts in Dresden, she applied to the Mephisto School for Make- up Artists in Berlin and made her way in the fashion world where she evaluated her conceptual sense in creating entire looks from a single vision. In all this time, painting never left her and Mang continues her search for personal artistic expression; she experiments and finds it on the canvas. Here, she discovers her own visual language: articulate and brief, she combines almost randomly placed blots in harmoniously contrasting colours that become floral patterns, and also calligraphic elements with portraits of women who radiate feminine strength through their fragility.