Past Residents
Past Resident2024: Canada Council for the Arts
Xiaojing Yan
Xiaojing Yan’s art reflects her cultural journey, culminating in a distinct personal vocabulary. Her unique perspective bridges past and present, exploring themes of identity, nature, and transcendence. Drawing on ancient Chinese traditions, rituals, and materials, Yan uses natural elements to evoke mystical and philosophical reflections on life, death, and humanity’s connection to the natural world. Her work is rich with symbolism that remains as relevant today as it was historically, engaging with issues such as environmental sustainability.
Xiaojing Yan has exhibited work at Suzhou Museum, China; Royal Ontario Museum, Canada; and Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates, among others.
Xiaojing Yan, Lingzhi Girl #10, 2017, lingzhi mushroom, mycelium and woodchips, 16 × 18 × 18 in. (40.64 × 45.72 × 45.72 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Spirit Cloud, 2017, Medium: fresh water pearls, filament and aluminum, 128 × 118 × 528 in. (325.12 × 299.72 × 1341.12 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Far from where you divined, 2017, mycelium, cultivated lingzhi mushrooms, wood chips and wood, dimensions variable.
Xiaojing Yan, Nebula, 2019, lava stone beads and golden thread, 157 × 236 × 157 in. (398.78 × 599.44 × 398.78 cm).
Xiaojing Yan, Stamen, 2023, wax and cotton thread, 144 × 108 in. (365.76 × 274.32 cm).
Past Resident2024: Creative Australia
Tom Polo
Tom Polo works across painting and installation, creating material forms that capture exchanges between people. His practice draws from a rich accumulation of social encounters, keen observations, and personal histories, recording the emotional and performative relationships between the self and others within social, theatrical, and psychological spaces. Through a blend of abstraction, text, and figuration, Polo explores how conversation and gesture become embodied acts of portraiture, simultaneously masking and revealing the complexities of our inner worlds.
Tom Polo has exhibited work at Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; and Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), all in Australia, among others.
Tom Polo, I still thought you were looking, 2019, painting installation, dimensions variable. Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
Tom Polo, free fall, 2022, painting installation, dimensions variable. 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia.
Tom Polo, The Most Elaborate Disguise, 2019, 40 mixed media works on paper and acrylic wall painting, 478 × 158 in. (1214.12 × 401.32 cm). The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Tom Polo, If you want to, feel to, 2023, acrylic, Flashe and wax pastel on canvas, 54 × 71 in. (137.16 × 180.34 cm). Courtesy of AMES YAVUZ, New South Wales.
Tom Polo, other options (a mask for a mask), 2022, acrylic, Flashe and wax pastel on canvas, 77 × 83 in. (195.58 × 210.82 cm). Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Melbourne.
Residents from Australia
Past Resident2024: Telos Foundation, Holtmann Collection
Charlie Stein
Charlie Stein’s work explores dominant cultural aesthetics and challenges traditional modes of perception in our digitized, visually overstimulated world. Through extensive research, she translates her insights into drawings, installations, sculptures, and paintings that address social structures, digital media, and communication. Her paintings reflect on contemporary aesthetics, creating a visual language that deconstructs and recontextualizes digital imagery. With degrees in fine art, sociology, and literature, Stein studied under Christian Jankowski and Rainer Ganahl. She is currently a visiting professor at HfbK Hamburg.
Charlie Stein has exhibited work at Manifesta 11, Zürich; Songjiang Art Museum, Shanghai; and SİNOPALE 6, Turkey, among others.
Charlie Stein, Recombining Realities, exhibition view, 2024, oil on canvas, dimensions variable.
Charlie Stein, Random Entities Paired Up (True Love), 2024, oil on canvas, 283/8 × 235/8 × 1 in. (72 × 60 × 2.5 cm).
Charlie Stein, Body With a View, 2024, oil on canvas, 311/2 × 393/8 × 1 in. (80.01 × 100 × 2.49 cm).
Charlie Stein, Portrait (Shoulder), 2024, oil on canvas, 551/8 × 987/16 × 1 in. (140 × 250.01 × 2.49 cm).
Charlie Stein, Still Life, 2024, oil on canvas, 153/4 × 1911/16 in. (40 × 50.01 cm).
