A painter and printmaker, Tan Ping occupies a space between art and design. Tan is best known for producing large-scale chromatic etchings using an innovative technique of overlaying copperplates. His work is characterized by the use of loose brushwork, block-colored backdrops, and the recurring motif of cells that appear to spread or move across the picture plane. Tan trained in Germany for five years and he credits his abstract style to this experience. “Abstractionism is a better way to display life as it underpins life’s essence, say, moving and changing,” he says. Tan has also produced traditional Chinese woodcut prints, silkscreens, and oil-on-canvas paintings.