Jennifer Boyuan Han
Back to the Good Old Times, 2024-2025
rice paper, chinese ink, photo transfer, gold leaf, modeling paste, acrylic on canvas
20 x 20 inches
C-lective Curator’s Cut
This piece captures a moment from Jennifer's childhood, with herself as the child on the table and her mother to the right. As in much of her work, the figures’ hair is made of wires - symbolizing our connection to, or dependence on, technology. Jennifer reflects on technology’s early presence in her life, questioning whether it brings us closer or distances us from meaningful family moments. Elements of Chinese culture, including a Meiping vase seen in her broader work, are woven throughout. Her art draws from personal memory and heritage, prompting us to examine our ties to history, technology, and each other.
Jennifer Bouyan Han, MFA
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Her work often features figures of diverse cultural identities, connected by elements like vibrant color and symbolic wire “hair”, a recurring motif that evokes both connection and entanglement through technology.
Han’s artwork is both deeply personal and universally relatable. Her installations and mixed-media pieces reflect a childhood shaped by screens and machines, where moments of intimacy were often mediated, or interrupted, by technology. The tension between memory and machinery, warmth and artificiality, surfaces repeatedly in her work.
“I want people to see the beauty in complexity — in mixed families, in tangled wires, in the moments we lose to technology and the ones we still manage to hold on to.”
By incorporating Chinese cultural symbols, such as the Meiping vase, and layering them with contemporary digital references, Han bridges tradition and futurism. Her art becomes a space for questioning the ways technology redefines relationships, memory, and even the self.
At its core, Han’s practice invites viewers to reflect on their own stories: the ways they connect, remember, and evolve in an increasingly digital world.
Interviews are currently in progress, please check back soon!