Yan Zhen began painting in the 1970s, after enjoying a successful career as a poet. He has worked in ink, watercolor, and oil, exploring similar concerns as those that animated his writing—desire, expression, lament, and memory. The collapse between dream and reality, driven by nostalgia for a lost world, is a recurring theme in his work. While his paintings often return to familiar Chinese motifs, such as lotuses, birds, mountains, and Jiangnan architecture, he interprets them in a vocabulary that reflects his deep engagement with modern traditions in Western art.