Where We Meet | Suyao Tian

This series of immersive water-based media paintings continues her exploration of layered forms that remain open to interpretation. Each painting feels both complete and evolving—like a moment within something still unfolding. In this way, the exhibition marks a point within Tian’s lifelong artistic journey.

For Tian, her paintings are not separate pieces, but a continuous body of work that began when she first started painting and will continue until she is no longer able to make art. Each painting becomes a marker—evidence of where she is along a path that has no fixed endpoint.

For this exhibition, Tian’s process begins outside the studio, where walks through neighborhoods and natural landscapes become inquiries, guiding what later unfolds on the canvas. Rather than trying to capture literal scenes, she reduces her observations into simplified lines and structural elements. This process includes both meditation and investigation—a way of thinking through place and perception.

Material experimentation is central to her work. Ink, acrylic, and natural pigments, including handcrafted and internationally sourced materials, create images that shift from dense saturation to translucent washes, building depth and movement within fluid, biomorphic structures. Forms merge and dissolve without settling into fixed identities.

Embedded within many compositions are subtle “hidden figures.” Viewers may glimpse a face, a mother and child, or another fleeting image depending on their perspective. Tian intentionally leaves these forms undefined, inviting interpretation rather than imposing meaning. Cultural background, memory, and lived experience shape what emerges, making the viewer a co-creator in the act of seeing. In this way, the work continues beyond the studio and into each viewer’s experience.

At the heart of Where We Meet is the concept that there is no clear beginning or end, no strict boundary between living forms and the spaces they inhabit. Everything unites—just as each painting merges into the next within her lifelong continuum of making.

“Suyao’s work embodies the spirit of the Project Space Grant program,” says Anita Sue Kolman, founder and co-partner of Kolman & Reeb Gallery. “Her dedication to process and experimentation, combined with the openness she invites from viewers, creates an exhibition that feels both intimate and expansive.”

Gallery curator and co-partner Jodi Reeb adds, “What moves me about Suyao’s paintings is the space they create. They ask us to slow down and look more closely. In that pause, something shifts—we begin to see connections we may not have noticed before.”

About the Artist:
Suyao Tian is a professional artist based in the Twin Cities, MN. She serves as adjunct faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, teaching Water-Based Media studio classes. Tian earned her BA from the University of Central Arkansas and her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in permanent collections such as the North Dakota Museum of Art and the University of Minnesota.

Gallery Hours:
Saturday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.
And by appointment
Call: 612.385.4239