On February 13, PhD candidate Keyu Yan presented a paper titled “Beijing to Hangzhou: Maryn Varbanov and the Significance of Mixed Media in Post-Mao China” at the College Art Association Annual Conference in New York. His paper was part of the panel “Encounters with Medium: Art, Travel, and Identity Formations in Twentieth-Century China,” co-organized by Dr. Yang Wang (PhD 2015) and Dr. Amanda Wangwright.

While in New York, Keyu explored exhibitions at the MET, MoMA, and the Museum of Arts and Design. Accompanied by Professors Judy Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, as well as scholars such as Christine I. Ho (UMass Amherst), Nancy P. Lin (Cornell University), and Juliane Noth (Freie Universität Berlin), Keyu was thrilled to join Lesley Ma, the inaugural Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Associate Curator of Asian Art at the MET, for a curatorial walkthrough of the Great Hall Commission, featuring two monumental works of calligraphy by Tong Yang-Tze. At the MET, Keyu also had the opportunity to chat with John T. Carpenter, the Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese Art, in the Japanese Art Gallery.

Keyu’s trip was generously supported by an Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Small Grant, a Murnane Travel Scholarship, and an Association for Chinese Art History (ACAH) Conference Travel Grant, with additional support from the Bei Shan Tang Foundation.