The exhibition begins in her studio, not literally, but emotionally. The curation mirrors how Yanran Chen thinks, what she surrounds herself with, how her pieces begin to breathe. Viewers wander through worktables, small sculptures, unfinished canvases, and details that feel lived-in rather than staged. The room is alive, intimate, unfiltered. The lines between process and outcome blur by design, creating a quiet invitation into her inner landscape. It feels less like a gallery and more like an encounter with thought in motion.

Neon Dreamland arrives at a pivotal moment for Chinese contemporary art, one marked by a generational shift. Artists like Chen are forging new paths by bridging the rich textures of local mythology with the pulse of global digital culture. Their work feels deeply rooted in Chinese heritage but is entirely unbound by geographic or stylistic expectations. While previous generations often grappled with post-socialist realities or institutional critique, Chen’s generation embraces fantasy, softness, and interiority. Her art does not shout; it shimmers, glitches, and whispers, inviting viewers to experience a subtler, more complex emotional terrain.

Her paintings offer a strange tenderness. Flesh merges with technology. Familiar shapes feel stretched, bent, reconfigured. There are gears, timepieces, wings, faces. A rhythm emerges: part manga, part subconscious debris, part something unnamed. It’s soft, and then it isn’t. What ties it all together is a constant undercurrent of transformation that feels almost inevitable.

Continuing the exhibition with WaarWorld, introducing another layer to Chen’s practice, collectible sculptures, Q-version figures, and narrative objects that expand on her interest in speculative fiction. Inspired by Liu Cixin’s The Supernova Era, this series has already made noise at ComplexCon, but here it’s presented as mythology. The figures are small, but the energy is cinematic. There’s a sharp edge to this room, a nod to gaming culture, sci-fi aesthetics, and the architecture of future nostalgia.