2022 Beyond the Curve International Film Festival “Best VR + 360 Film” for in times like these…, France
2020 National Arts Council Young Artist Award, Singapore
2020 Prague International Indie Film Festival Q3 “Best Animation Short” for Women in Rage, Czech Republic
2019 Winner of ArtOutreach IMPART Visual Artist Award, Singapore
2019 National Youth Film Awards “Best Art Direction” for Automatonomy, Singapore
2018 President’s Young Talents People’s Choice Award for Scars that write us , Singapore
2012 Japan Media Arts Festival Jury Selection Award for eco-awareness flash game Jimmyfish, Japan
AWARDS
EDUCATION
European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland
PhD with Summa cum Laude 2014-2018
Skinning Nudity: a reading of nudities in arts and law in the Singapore context.
Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hubertus von Amelunxen (European Graduate School)
Co-supervisor: Dr. Jeremy Fernando (Tembusu College, National University of Singapore)
Defence committee: Prof. Dr. Hubertus von Amelunxen, Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinksi, Dr. Jeremy Fernando.
Master of Arts in Communications (Distinction) 2012-2014
Tracing Etymology: Origins and Time; Monsters and Demons
Thesis Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schirmacher (European Graduate School) and
Dr. Jeremy Fernando (Tembusu College, National University of Singapore)
The Florence Academy of Art, Mōlndal, Sweden
Intensive Drawing Course 2013
Awarded the Talent Assistance and Training Allowance Grant from National Art Council Singapore.
Puppets in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Marionette Carving and Puppets for animated film workshops June-August 2009
Awarded the National Youth Council Grant 2009
School of Art, Design, and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Digital Animation (1st class honours) 2005-2009
Awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal Award 2009
Awarded the Nanyang Scholarship 2005-2009
The Animation Workshop, Viborg, Denmark
3d Character Animation Workshop January-June 2008
The Drawing Academy
Awarded the MDA Capabilities Development Grant 2008
National Junior College, Singapore
Awarded the MOE Art Elective Programme Scholarship 2003-2004
Awarded the Sapphire Scholars Programme 2003-2004
publications
Collecting Bodies: A Short Story about art and nudities in Asia, written by Yanyun Chen, published by Swell and The Culture Story, 2023. ISBN 978-981-18-5970-0.
Into the Clouds: New Media Art 2021, editor Leejin Kim, published by CICA Press, Gimpo, Korea, 2020. ISBN 979-11-88671-15-1 03600 (paperback), ISBN 979-11-88671-16-8 05600 (ebook)
Verse & Voice, edition 54-55 July to October 2020, editor-in-chief Chris Song, published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, Hong Kong, 2020. ISSN 2308-2216.
Flower Flights, with writings by Jeremy Fernando, Junni Chen and Lim Lee Ching, published by Swell Sg, Singapore, 2018. ISBN 978-981-14-0033-9.
Cenobio, edition IV, editor-in-chief Pietro Montorfani, published by Edizioni Canobio, Lugano, 2017. ISSN 0008-896X.
50 Drawing Exercises, edited by Martin Constable and Yanyun Chen, published by Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR) for Art Teachers in Ministry of Education Schools, Singapore, 2016. ISBN: 978-981-09-8445-8.
Chasing Flowers : workings, written by Yanyun Chen and Junni Chen, published by Knuckles&Notch & Delere Press LLP, Singapore, 2016. Risograph print zine. ISBN: 978-981-09-9769-4
Tracing Etymology: Origin and Time; Monsters and Demons, written by Yanyun Chen, edited by Jeremy Fernando, with an introduction by Jeremy Fernando and Esther Ng, published by Atropos Press, New York, 2015. ISBN: 978-1940813943, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository.
It’s Fiction A 2014 Drawing Catalogue, with text by Jeremy Fernando, Dustin Hellberg, Anders Kølle, published by Delere Press, Singapore. 2014. ISBN: 978-981-09-2656-4, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository.
On Invisibility; or, towards a minor ju-jitsu, written by Jeremy Fernando, illustrated by Yanyun Chen, published by Delere Press, Singapore, 2013. ISBN: 978-981-07-4309-3, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository.
teaching
School of Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University Professor of the Practice (Full-time)
January 2023- Drawing and Painting.
Courses Taught:
Introduction to Interdisciplinary Drawing ;
Intermediate Drawing: Strategies of Representation ;
The Human Body: Inside and Out ;
Graduate Critique ;
Directed Study
Yale-NUS College, Singapore Lecturer (Full-time)
July 2018 – June 2023 Arts & Humanities, Division of Humanities.
Yale-NUS College, Singapore Arts Practice Track Coordinator (Full-time)
July 2020 – June 2022 Arts & Humanities, Division of Humanities.
Yale-NUS College, Singapore Lecturer (Part-time)
August 2015 – June 2018 Arts & Humanities, Division of Humanities.
Courses Taught:
Drawing Process ;
Life Drawing ;
Drawing Methods ;
Introduction to 2D Animation (write-up by The Octant) ;
Visual Storytelling ;
Digital Narratives ;
Art Studio Research, Experimentation and Critique ;
Introduction to the Arts ;
Experimental Animation and the Mechanics of Movement ;
Arts in Singapore : Skinning Nudities 1990s-2010s
Independent Reading and Research Courses:
Anatomical Studies and Figurative Art ;
Fundamentals of Storyboarding ;
Drawing Human Anatomy ;
Drawing the Human Nude with Charcoal ;
Environment Design and Urban Landscapes of Singapore ;
Aesthetics of Food ;
Designing “Echo Corners” for Singapore Biennale 2019
Capstone Projects Supervising
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Lecturer (Part-time)
August 2014 – June 2018, School of Art, Design, and Media
Courses Taught:
Applied Drawing;
Drawing for Animation;
Drawn Animation I
August 2014 – December 2014 Semester 1 2014/15, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Course Taught:
Thinking and Communicating Visually: Introduction to Drawing; or, seeing with line
Nanyang Academy of Fine Art, Singapore (External Advisor for Final Year Projects)
Illustration Design Major
March 2015 – April 2015 ; February 2014 – April 2014
European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland. (Teaching Assistant)
Being-With-Without-Others
September 2014 – August 2015 with Werner Hamacher
Art & Identity with Photography
September 2012 – August 2013 with Hubertus von Amelunxen
Archaeology of Apprehension; Foucault: Archaeology of Knowledge
September 2011 – August 2012 with Thomas Zummer
2023 AUG “Animating Gold: the works of Priyageetha Dia” Japan Society of Animation Studies, Yokohama National University, Japan.
2023 JUL “Arts Career Panel” moderated by Marc Nair, hosted by Sazali Othman, with panelists Ong Shu Chen, Jo Tan, Claire Chong, Bernice Lee, and Yanyun Chen, Schoo of the Arts, Singapore.
2023 JAN “The Role of Public Institutions and Residencies in the Arts Ecosystem” moderated by Yanyun Chen, with panelists Aaron Cezar, Alessio Antoniolli, Zoe Whitley, and Sook-Kyung Lee. Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
2023 JAN “Desire in Dead” Panel Discussion moderated by Adele Tan with Zulkhairi Zulkiflee. OH Open House, Singapore.
2022 DEC “For the time being” Poetry Night #1 convened by Theophilius Kwek with Lawrence Ypil, Appetite, Singapore.
2022 OCT “Southeast Asian Performing Bodies: A Reading of Four Works from Melati Suryodarmo, Nguyen Trinh Thi, Sara Chong & Yanyun Chen, and Sarnt Utamachote” SMFA at Tufts University, Boston, US.
2022 OCT “Book Launch | SEA Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia” Paris Asia Now, Paris, France.
2022 SEP “Artist presentation” 17th Edition of Culture Night Oíche Chultúir, Ireland.
2022 MAR “Touch of a Gaze with Yanyun Chen” Appetite SG, Nouri, Singapore.
2022 FEB “South South Next x STPI presenting Yanyun Chen” Online.
2022 FEB "“While She Quivers Artist Conversation: The Material Arc of Gender Norms” Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore.
2022 FEB “While She Quivers Artist Conversation: Unpacking Feminine Auto/narratives” Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore.
2021 NOV “Sex and Censorship: Animations in Singapore post-2010” Symposium paper presentation, 45th CINANIMA Festival, AnimaScape Symposium, Espinho, Portugal.
2021 SEP “Fireside Chat: The Future of Preserving our Past” Invited Speaker for GovInsider Festival of Innovation, Singapore.
2021 MAY “Art and Aesthetics in Medicine: Artists’ Panel : A Different Perspective” Introductory Course in Medical Humanities, SingHealth, Duke NUS, in collaboration with Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
2021 MAR “Embodied Narratives” Alliance Française, Singapore.
2021 FEB Objectifs Film Club: The Drawing Room & Episodes from Art Studio by Liao Jiekai, Objectifs, Singapore.
2021 JAN “Grounded and Ready For Take Off: Flight Plans for 2021” SAW Art Symposium, Singapore.
2020 OCT “Round Table: New Habits, Pattern and Traditions” Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento, Buenos Aires.
2020 JAN Drawing Symposium 2020 Masterclass “Dry Medium Drawing: a practice-based research” for Singapore Teachers Academy for the Arts, Singapore.
2020 JAN “Choking on Nostalgia” Art Science Museum, Singapore.
2019 SEP “Visualising Bodies: Love song for the medical sciences” for SingHealth Duke NUS Education Conference, Health and the Humanities: Music, Art, and Poetry”, Singapore.
2019 JUN “Animation in Singapore Contemporary Art: Hilmi Johandi and Dave Lim” Society for Animation Studies, Lisbon, Portugal.
2019 MAY “Hospitality in blurred spaces—a case-study of Ming Poon’s Undressing Room” Association for Philosophy and Literature Conference, Klagenfurt, Austria.
2019 APR “Nudity, Art and Censorship in Singapore” Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
2019 MAR “The Times of Art in Singapore” Featured Speaker for ‘Beyond the Clock’ Interdisciplinary Symposium on Time; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
2018 MAY “Understanding Nudity in Art” Cultural Criticism, National Library, Singapore.
2017 APR “The Nude, dressed up to the eyeballs…”, Poetry, philosophy, politics : on art & education workshop, Tembusu College, National University of Singapore.
2016 JUN “On blinking: Looking closely at Don Hertzfeldt’s Animations”, 28th Annual Conference of the Society of Animation Studies ; Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
TALKS & PAPERS
2023 OCT Art, Science & Engineering Diversity Fund, Tufts University, USA. 2023-2024
2023 MAY Daynard Travel Grant, Tufts University School of Museum of Fine Arts, USA. Summer 2023.
2021 MAY Andreas Teoh Contemporary Asian Art Programme Fellowship, Yale-NUS College. 2021-2023
2021 JAN Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Grant, Yale-NUS College. 2021-2023
2020 APR Georgette Chen Fellowship Grant, Yale-NUS College. 2020-2023
2019 MAY Teaching Enhancement Grant (Education Conference Grant), National University of Singapore. Summer 2019