About

My interest in the residential neighbourhood is directly related to my search for my home. The reason that I participate in artist in residencies is because they provide the ideal circumstances to dive deeper into the question: What would life have been like if I’d grown up here (and not the Netherlands)?

I aim to highlight man-made objects in their environment. Through the use of bright colors I want to challenge the status quo, and create an alternative reality that stirs up one’s imagination. In recent years I also explore how nature is perceived and their relation to man-made objects.

Apart from painting, Yana now also makes songs to express the more complex themes surrounding the transnational adoption industrial complex.

Yana was displaced from Indonesia to the Netherlands when she was six weeks old. Being uprooted is the driving force behind her both conscious and subconscious search for the home that she was cut off from. In her recent projects Yana explores various subjects that affect many transracially adopted people, such as discrimination and returning to your ancestor’s land.

Yana holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts. Her paintings mainly depict the urban environment, or, more specifically, residential neigbourhoods. In 2011 she studied Nihonga painting in Japan, a technique that she still uses. After, she went back a few times to participate in art residencies and to learn how to make handmade paper.

Yana’s paintings have been sold in the Netherlands, Japan and Hong Kong