Huang Dan was born in Guanxi, China, in 1979. She moved to Beijing to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts: she graduated with a BA from the Department of Traditional Chinese Painting in 2001. In 2004, she was awarded an MA from the same institution.

The simplicity that is a theme of Huang Dan’s works is manifested most clearly in her sparing use of colour, offering the viewer clean signature shades of a cold blue and hot orange, black and white. The artist offers us a clue as to how this selective colour palette may yet narrow further in the future: “The colours are becoming even more simple. Maybe in the end it will just be black and white. And then I may turn away from black and white and lead us into a world of chaos...” She describes the simplicity in the context of a half way stage between full, vibrant representation and the portrayal of nothingness. “A process from much, to half, to less... to none.” Huang Dan continues: “But nothingness is not about an empty canvas, it’s about finding the truth. So it’s not a movement from being to not being. But it’s how to use what exists on the canvas to present untouchable, abstract disciplines...This is something difficult but worthwhile."