Huang Yuncan (b. 1982) graduated from the oil painting department at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2005, and continued her graduate studies until 2008. She has participated in group exhibitions in many of China’s major cities, including Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.

The series New Youth depicts an experience of youth that is unprecedented China, and is a result of the country’s new material wealth. She portrays her subjects looking carefree and trendy, but at the same time self-conscious – capturing the awkwardness and uncertainty that accompanies the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Her characters exist in neutral fields without context. This could suggest the uncertainty of youth, or possibly the lack of fixed references in China’s rapidly changing conditions.

Huang’s images are presented as animated but imprecise recollections with floating spots that coalesce into figures and interactions. The tenuous bonds between the spots threaten to dissipate at any moment, imitating the brevity of youth and the fragility of the mind’s eye.