From being an interior designer of a hotel of decorative arts to working at the contemporary art gallery in Beijing, Tan Tian is stimulated by the dynamic relationships among artists, galleries, public, collectors and factory workers. Tan’s practice is not based on the nature or the essence of the medium itself, but a play or narrative among various mediums. Currently, he is developing two series based on their structural components: Family Structure and Parenthood. In Family Structure, the artist combines various media in a specific narrative in order to present a missing part formally, structurally, and allegorically. In Parenthood, by creating two pieces that have subtle or dynamic differences and similarities to inform, affect, subvert or interfere with, the duality becomes a form of infinite storytellings – a paradox.

Tan Tian (b. 1988, Beijing, China) received his MFA from the Liberal Arts Department of Kingston University London in 2012, and he is now studying at Hunter College in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Welcome, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China (2016); Jump to Second Solo Show, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China (2015). Recent group exhibitions include Story: Born After the ’85 New Wave Generation Y of Contemporary Chinese Art, National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Beijing, China (2019); Becoming, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China (2018); I Do (Not) Want To Be Part of Your Celebration, Qiao Space, Shanghai, China (2017); Toward The Emergence of Resistance, Taikangspace, Beijing, China (2016); Neo-Eden, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China (2016); Overpop, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China (2016); Turning Point: Contemporary Art in China Since 2000, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2016); The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2015, Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China (2016); Creating for the Future: Thinking About the Unthinkable, MOMENTUM Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2015); The 2nd CAFAM Future Exhibition: The Young Chinese Artists’ Representation of Reality, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2015). Tan Tian currently lives and works in Beijing, China.

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