Oil Painting #1 by YiJin Han
MMX Gallery is pleased to host a 3 day pop-up show by recent Goldsmiths College graduate Vincent Lian and an emerging artist YiJin Han from China.
This is an experimental exhibition exploring the process of difficult emotions, the survivals of human affect through mixed media including oil painting, textile exploration and archival installations. This collaborative show also explore the boundary between art and curation, the final work and a work in perpetual process.
About:
This collaborative project emerged from an ongoing dialogue between artist Yijin Han and curator Vincent Lian. While The Frozen Lake originated from Han's personal engagement with grief, the curatorial process gradually expanded the conversation towards broader questions surrounding affect, artistic labour and the afterlives of creative practice.
Working through abstraction, pure colour and distilled form, Han developed a visual language through which grief is slowly experienced, processed and transformed alongside hope, depression and uncertainty. As Han writes:"Winter Lake is more than just a season or a frozen lake; it is a metaphor for the human condition. It represents the inevitable winter of life—a state of stagnation, pressure, decay and profound uncertainty. It explores authentic human feelings by seeking what is provisional."
During the development of the project, the curator's attention shifted beyond the completed paintings towards the artistic processes and material remains that preceded them. Before turning to oil painting, Han experimented with yarn and thread under the same conceptual framework. These textile experiments were originally considered unsuccessful by the artist and were never intended for exhibition.
Their reappearance within the project offers one possible interpretation emerging from the dialogue between artist and curator. Rather than being understood simply as failed experiments, they may also be seen as material traces through which artistic thinking and affect continue to survive. This raises broader questions: should these experiments be regarded as autonomous works in their own right or merely disposable residues of artistic practice? Likewise, are difficult emotions themselves integral dimensions of human experience that deserve recognition, or are they simply transitional states to be overcome and forgotten?
Across the project, completed paintings, archival materials and experimental works are presented not as separate categories but as interconnected stages within an ongoing artistic process. The boundary between artwork and archive, completion and process, artistic production and curatorial interpretation is deliberately left open.
The project unfolds across two exhibitions and culminates in a participatory installation. The exhibition at MMX Gallery marks the final chapter of the project. At the conclusion of the this exhibition, visitors will be invited to participate in dismantling the exhibited works. Their fragments will be reassembled into a new installation, allowing destruction to become another form of creation and extending the dialogue beyond the project itself.
Artist & Curator Bios：
Vincent Lian is a fluid curatorial practitioner whose practice approaches exhibitions as a medium for public engagement, working across branding, archival practice, and interdisciplinary art. He completed an MA in Brands, Communication and Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London, and currently works at Goldsmiths Library. His interests centre on affect, emotions, legitimacy and the hidden processes through which value is produced.
YiJin Han is an emerging Chinese artist with an MA in Design Visualization and an LLB. Her career spans fashion and set design, while her art practice focuses on abstract painting, incorporating textiles and photographic imagery to probe the quiet fragility of human nature and the potential of art as a conduit for human connection.
Opening hours：
6th August 2026, 4-6pm
7th-8th Aug 2026, 11am-6pm