Shimin Fan

SEE is a series of portrait paintings exploring the experience of looking at others and being looked at. My interest in portraiture began with observing faces in everyday life. I am particularly drawn to brief moments of eye contact, subtle expressions, and the emotions that can appear through a person’s face.

Rather than creating an accurate representation of an individual, I use portraiture as a way to explore psychological presence. The faces are developed through observation, memory, and my personal impression of the subject. Some details are emphasised while others are simplified or left uncertain. Through this process, the portrait moves between recognition and ambiguity.

Colour plays an important role in the work. I use bright and fluorescent colours that often move away from natural skin tones. For me, these colours are not simply decorative; they suggest emotional and psychological states that cannot always be communicated through facial expression alone. The contrast between colour, gesture, and the gaze creates a sense of tension between the visible appearance of the subject and their internal world.

Living in a different cultural environment has also changed the way I observe people and think about identity. Encounters with unfamiliar faces have made me increasingly aware of how we read, judge, and imagine others through appearance.

Through SEE, I am interested in the face not only as an image of a particular person, but as a space where identity, emotion, distance, and vulnerability can exist together. The paintings ask what we actually understand about another person when we look at them—and what remains inaccessible.