— A Contemporary Practice of Porcelain within a Global Context
— The Intervention of Painting and the Repositioning of Material Language
1.Identifying the Issue
Porcelainart is currently facing a critical challenge: in the contemporary context, is porcelain still primarily understood through “types” and “techniques”? This mode of understanding significantly constrains the development of porcelain incontemporary society.
2.Reflecting on the Question
Or,perhaps, porcelain art could function like painting—as a continuously evolving system of concepts and methodologies—thereby breaking the existing impasse and regaining the freedom to begin anew.
3.Exploring Solutions and Methods
From the historical relationship between painting and porcelain decoration to the active integration of painterly concepts and methodologies into ceramic practice, this work seeks to challenge established historical authority and initiate a structural transformation oriented toward future development.This porcelain practice does not aim to deny the history of the medium. Rather, it strives to liberate painting from its conventional decorative function on ceramic objects, transforming it into an open, structural system of spiritual expression that penetrates the body of the vessel and informs its very materiality and form.
4.Practical Explorations in Response to the Issue
4.1The Emergence and Naming of Pouring Color (Lin Cai)
Pouring Color emerges from both Eastern traditions of splash ink andcolor, as well as Jackson Pollock’s drip painting. However, it is not acontinuation of either lineage; rather, it represents a creative integrationand contemporary reconfiguration of these practices. Its primary aim is toinitiate a structural disruption of the historical dominance of pattern and decorative discourse.
4.2 On the Question of the Color Field
Mark Rothko transformed the color field into a gateway to the spirit. YvesKlein defined his singular, iconic blue. In contrast, the blue of traditional blue-and-white porcelain has long been constrained within historical categoriesand stylistic periods.Through Pouring Color, I transform the traditional blue of blue-and-white porcelain into a contemporary spiritual field—reminiscent of Klein Blue yet fundamentally distinct from monochrome, possessing its own layered, dynamic essence.
4.3 The Intervention of Contemporary Painting
In my porcelain practice, concepts from contemporary and modern movements—such as Surrealism, Expressionism, Symbolism, and graffiti—are freely introduced.The aim is to explore how the rotational space of porcelain vessels cantransform and interact with contemporary painting on paper and canvas, opening possibilities for their mutual development.
4.4 Destructive Regeneration
Reflecting on traditional carving tools and materials, uncertainty—of thought,emotion, and spiritual energy—is taken as both the point of departure and the point of return in the reconstruction of value. The carving knife is fundamentally transformed and used creatively, elevating it from a functional technique to a metaphysical language of expressive, spiritual articulation.
5.Historical Reflection
The porcelain works presented in this exhibition may represent an as-yet unnamed,open-ended path within contemporary art practice.
6.Conclusion
By introducing the concepts and methodologies of painting into porcelain practice,the development of porcelain is no longer constrained by historical authority,nor reduced to a material demonstration of technical mastery. Instead, it becomes an artistic field that unfolds in parallel with contemporary livedexperience.Within the context of contemporary art, I seek to explore a regenerative path that transcends traditional craft, moving toward pure artisticexpression—open-ended, experiential, and imbued with the vitality of livedexperience.
Darian DUAN
b. China (born December 12, 1974)| Based in Australia
Porcelain / Painting-based Contemporary Practice
EDUCATION
PhD in Aesthetics(2016-2022)
School of Fine Arts, Nanjing Normal University
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Solo Porcelain Exhibition, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia
2021
Solo Exhibition, Gallery Baird, [On-Line(Covid), USA]
2014
Perceive · Discern · Yijian — Chinese Paintings,Yaming Art Museum, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Melbourne Ceramic Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia Affordable Art Fair Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
2022
Ever-Changing: Seven-Person Modern Ink Exhibition, Zhangjiagang, China
2021
Yipeng Lin Teaching Achievements: Teacher–Student Exhibition,Nanjing Normal University Art Museum, Nanjing, China
2017
Contemporary Ink: Three-Person Exhibition,Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing, China
2014
The Third National Nine Cities Art Exhibition (Touring),Chengdu, Xi’an, Wuhan, Beijing, Jinan, China
2012
Resonant Brush and Ink: Contemporary Young Artists,Jiangsu Province State Art Museum, Nanjing, China
CURATED EXHIBITIONS & ACADEMIC PROJECTS
2013
Reshaping Oriental Aesthetics II,Nanjing & Shanghai, China(Curator & Organiser)
2012
Reshaping Oriental Aesthetics I: Modern Interpretations of Ink,Jiangsu Province State Art Museum (New Building), Nanjing, ChinaAcademic Director: Du Daikai
Curator: Lin Yipeng
Assistant Curator: Darian DuanOrganised with Nanjing Normal University and Nanjing University
PUBLICATIONS
2012
Reshaping Oriental Aesthetics: The First Exhibition & Academic Symposium Proceedings
Editor / Deputy Editor
Black Dragon River Fine Arts Publishing House
ISBN 978-7-5318-3706-0
2011
Ink Sea and Crimson Brush: Collected Works of Contemporary Young Artist Yijian Duan
Author
Black Dragon River Fine Arts Publishing House
ISBN 978-7-5318-2664-4
PUBLIC ART & CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Commissioned creation and donation of 10 large-scale calligraphy and painting works (each approximately 1m × 6m) for Yuechan Temple (Nanyue Temple),
Yixing, Jiangsu Province, China(Historic Buddhist temple founded in 484 AD; protected cultural heritage site)
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE STATEMENT
Darian Duan’s practice originates in painting and ink traditions and has evolved through academic research, curatorial practice, and theoretical inquiry. In recent years, this research has shifted toward porcelain as a contemporary medium, introducing painting methodologies, uncertainty, and structural disruption into ceramic practice.The work challenges the historical positioning of porcelain as decorative craft, reframing it as a conceptual and experiential field aligned with contemporary art discourse.
