About PM/AM
PM/AM is a contemporary art gallery located on the border of Soho and Fitzorovia in the heart of London. It hosts a busy programme of shows across the two exhibition floors of the Eastcastle Street space. The gallery’s lower ground floor studio provides the location for a residency space for international and under-represented artists to develop their practice. Together the spaces form a unique cultural and creative hub in the bustling centre of the city.
PM/AM’s mission is to reflect through art how we engage with ourselves and the world today, expressed through the artists it is fortunate enough to work with. Recent graduates, those emerging into the spotlight and in their mid-careers on the international stage all feature across a dynamic programme. The gallery works on the vanguard of the emerging art sector, responsible for finding artists of tomorrow, and is keen to explore and present work originating from the many interlocking diasporas of the world. PM/AM’s plays a part in the incubation of contemporary art’s future by representing a carefully selected roster of artists, working with them to initiate and grow lasting careers in the global art world.
As a dynamic arts organisation PM/AM’s activities extend beyond exhibitions into consultation, publications and editorial, providing the means to facilitate placements with collectors and institutions, and create extended content to further support and expose the artists we work with. This self-contained structure is key to the gallery’s broad outlook and capabilities, however we value collaborations with external writers, curators and other galleries to realise our goals.
Exhibition Text
Dingyue Luna Fan’s paintings exist in a space between a dreamscape and a memory, mobilising millennia-long mythology and tradition, embedded within a web of rhythmic brushstrokes. Her semi-abstract works are multi-layered, creating a vibrant dance of colours—rose pink, blue, and everything in between. As viewers take in the compositions, hidden forms emerge gradually, revealing serpents, dolphin snouts, and blinking eyes, all intertwined with a shared vitality, a flow of life force known as qi.
Luna’s transition from photography, a technique mastered during her MA at the Royal College of Art, to painting has activated themes of temporality, consciousness, and femininity. Luna’s process spontaneous and unplanned; omitting any sketches or outlining of ideas beforehand, she is guided only by her fluid subconscious, moulded by memories of growing up in Chongqing, China, near the Yangtze River. In Fingerprints of Nested Dreams, blue pigments are layered, create a sense of chaotic currents, while coral pink runs across the composition, reminiscent of glowing embers under a riverbed. This conjures the Taoist teaching that the path of life is one of constant motion. Even creatures, always portrayed mid-swim or mid-flight, carry with them fluidity. Despite the intuitive nature of her process, a pattern of entanglement is present throughout her works. Sentient beings and abstract forms connect fluidly, embodying the Taoist principle of interconnectedness. Flowing strokes of blue connect the serpents to the fish, the blinking eye to the orchids, evoking the cyclical nature of life.
These subjects began to surface after her move to Montreal as recurring dreams from her childhood returned: as a child, she had chased serpents in her dreams; yet over time, she began to bond with these serpents. Once fearsome and alien, they became a site of shared vitality—one that is not free from fragility but rather reconciles with it. In these dreams, Luna’s ambiguous subjectivity recalls the Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi’s “Butterfly Analogy,” where the distinction between dreamer and dream blurs. In paintings like Dawn Star, ears, eyes, and wings emerge in fluid, formless shapes, their boundaries dissolving.The paintings are a subconscious outpouring, calling on past and present dreams –akin to the Surrealist technique of automatism– but maintain a personal and emotional depth, distinct from undertones of alienation that are integral to Surrealism.
The animals in Luna’s works refuse straightforward interpretation. The serpent, in particular, can be both magical and malevolent, reflecting its multifaceted nature: In Mira, various serpent heads rise with ferocity, whilst in Crawl over the Crimson Skin, larger serpent heads cautiously approach as blood red stains the canvas. Meanwhile, the serpents in Fingerprints of Nested Dreams, carry an inviting air of oriental mystique. The serpent, for Luna, embodies the divine feminine in all its nuance: simultaneously fluid yet dangerous. Themes of femininity are most tangible in her use of colour. A Y2K-inspired palette permeates Amnesia of Stars, Waking up in the Dreams of Anthias and Dawn Star: hot pink, icy blues, pastel purple and neon greens. Yet Luna’s works defy the traditional mould of female artists, whose subject matter was often limited to vacuous, decorative themes of beauty, fertility or love. Instead, she disrupts conventional notions of femininity by insisting on its dualities. At the heart of Luna’s practice is a candid exploration of feminine energy, mythologised creatures and ultimately, a vitality, guided by an intricate dance between the familiar and the uncanny, memory and dream.
Alysha Wong
September, 2024
CV
Born: 1994, Chongqing, China.
Lives and works in London.
Education
2023 - MA Photography, Royal College of Art.Royal College of Art, London.
2016 - BA French, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing.
Solo Exhibitions
2024 - 53, PM/AM, London (online).
Group Exhibitions
2024 - Plural Contemporary Art Fair. Franz Kaka, Montreal.
2024 - Ah, the Mark on the Wall! It was a Snail. Petitree Art, Shenzhen.
2024 - The Treasure House Fair. 3812 Gallery, London.
2024 - Eco-Fobia Politica. Galleria Gaburro, Milan.
2023 - Thermal Relaxation Effect. No.WxRoof, Guangzhou.
2023 - Ya. 3812 Gallery, London.
2023 - Photofairs. Shanghai Exhibition Centre, London.
2023 - Off Print. Tate Modern, London.
2023 - Savouring Shadows. Copeland Gallery, London.
2023 - Lucky Number 8. Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London.
2023 - Flowing, Dwelling. Tsinghua University & Vanke, Beijing.
2023 - Monophony. Royal College of Art & Royal College of Music, London.
2023 - Polyphonic. Crypt Gallery, London.
Residencies/Awards
2024 - Artist in Residence at PM/AM, London.
