"Awake-Song" (2007) is a visually arresting color photograph and self-portrait by famous Chinese conceptual artist Huang Yan. The artist has his face painted white to make it a blank canvas, then has a vibrant imagery from traditional Chinese iconography painted in vibrant reds, oranges and green to overtake his visage, making facial features such as nose and mouth disappear. This photograph is so dynamic as the artist keeps his eyes wide open and starting outwards, interrupting the 'painting' and reclaiming his own identity, while at the same time using his face as an anonymous human canvas. The work is unframed and in pristine condition and is the formal AP from the edition.

In 1999, Huang Yan began a series of color photographs entitled "Chinese Landscapes" – traditional images and landscapes painted directly on the skin of a human body. Yan’s artworks encapsulate a synthesis of Chinese traditional heritage and the contemporary world. The human body and skin itself becomes the canvas as Huang Yan paints, leading us to question whether the subject of his work is the body or the painting. Is it a painted body, or a landscape, or both?

Huang Yan (b. 1966, China) is a major figure in Chinese Contemporary art. His signature technique, the photography of the painting of the human body (frequently his own) with traditional Chinese landscapes and allegorical scenes, has made its mark on world photography and painting for over the past decade. His works are in the top Museum and Private Collections spanning from Asia, Europe, the U.K and has been the subject of important solo and group shows, including: 100 International Artists at the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, 2005, Italy; Between the Past and the Future at the International Center of Photography, 2004, NYC; Guangzhou Triennial Exhibition at the Guangdong Museum of Art, 2002; 1st Chinese Art Triennial, Guangzhou Art Museum, 2002; Canton Triennial, Canton Museum of Fine Arts, 2002, China; The Turn of the Century: Exhibition of Chinese Art 1979-1999, Chengdu Museum of Modern Art, 1999, China; The East is Red, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1999, London UK. Huang Yan graduated from the Changchun Normal Academy, China in 1987. The artist lives and works in Beijing, China.