MARS is delighted to announce the representation of Chun Yin Rainbow Chan. Recently exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, she works fluidly across contemporary visual art and popular music, her practice examines themes of cultural representation, (mis)translation, matrilineal inheritance, feminist expression, and diasporic identity. We are excited to share her inaugural solo exhibition Continuum opens at MARS on Thursday, May 21st 6-8pm, and closes on June 19th.
Image: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Opening The Mouth (Study), 2025, acrylic and ink on xuan paper, incense burn marks, chalk pastel, rice glue, 43 x 21.5cm.
Continuum brings together a selection of works that reimagine the bridal laments of Hong Kong’s 圍頭/Weitou women, to whom Chan has deep ancestral ties. Through silk paintings, experimental calligraphy and audiovisual works, she translates these culturally endangered songs into contemporary forms that preserve their subversive feminist voices while reflecting on loss, resilience and solidarity.
Symbolic imagery and ritual gestures recur as motifs, evoking resistance, grief, and love within women’s histories. Lyrics are transcribed through perforations on silk. Burned holes suggest loss, while faint traces of words hint at continuity and survival. The porous silk surface becomes a field where language, light, and song interact, forming portals between past and present. Chan’s work engages deeply with language and memory, situating personal histories within broader sociopolitical contexts. She is particularly interested in the power of ritual, song and performance in postcolonial contexts – both as a means of reclaiming agency and a living archive.
Andy Dinan, MARS director and founder shared, “I am delighted to have Rainbow join our legacy of artists at MARS. Her recent work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales caught my eye, and I was immediately impressed by her practice. I know she’ll make a great addition to MARS. Her distinctly feminist voice echoes the need for powerful female voices of now."
Chun Yin Rainbow Chan (陳雋然) holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the University of NSW. As a highly acclaimed visual artist and musician, she has exhibited and performed widely across Australia and internationally at art institutions and festivals, including the Sydney Opera House, Phoenix Central Park, Carriageworks, Melbourne Music Week, Iceland Airwaves, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tai Kwun Contemporary, M+ in Hong Kong, SXSW, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Firstdraft, Art Gallery of NSW, Cement Fondu, Blindside, Queensland University Art Museum, Australian National University, and I-Project Space in Beijing.
Chan’s work has garnered significant recognition through major commissions and presentations. She is the inaugural artist behind ABC Bullion’s Arts Series Coin Program (2026). In 2024 she was commissioned by both the Yokohama Triennale (Japan) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia for Primavera: Young Australian Artists. Her installation “Fruit Song” is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.
Image: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Ash Fall Flowers, 2025, acrylic and ink on xuan paper, incense burn marks, chalk pastel, rice glue, mounted on stretched canvas, 2 panels, each 38 x 91 cm.