Stephanie Yiyang Yu is a Chinese artist based in New York City whose work explores memory, travel, architecture, and the emotional landscapes of everyday life. Working primarily in oil, watercolor, and mixed media, she transforms lived experiences into dreamlike visual memoirs, where places become vessels for memory and color becomes a language of emotion.

From an early age, Yu developed a deep fascination with poetry, foreign languages, writing, music, cinema, and art—interests that continue to shape her multidisciplinary practice. Before dedicating herself fully to painting, she worked across creative marketing and public relations while earning a bachelor's degree in Communication and International & Global Studies, with a concentration in European and Central Asian regions, from Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She later pursued Fashion Trend Investigation at IED Barcelona, where her interest in visual culture and storytelling continued to expand.

Throughout these years, extensive travel became an essential part of Yu's creative process. The streets she wandered, the architecture she observed, and the fleeting encounters she experienced became an ever-growing archive of memories that would later find their way into her paintings.

Yu returned to oil painting in 2023 and committed herself fully to her practice in January 2026. Within months of her return, her painting Not Even a Million Doors was selected as a Chief Curator's Pick by Saatchi Art, marking an important early recognition of her work.

Today, Yu's paintings are guided by intuition as much as observation. Influenced by travel, music, cinema, literature, and her multicultural upbringing, she creates poetic spaces that invite viewers to wander through memory, imagination, and the quiet beauty of ordinary places.