As a museum-trained artist coming of age during the reform and opening-up period in China, I believe that traditional ink brush painting has untapped potential as an expression of contemporary art and a fresh interpretation of traditional techniques deserve to be shared with international art audiences. It is the conceptual updating of ink brush that will be a unique East Asian contribution to global contemporary art. Over the last three decades, I have been exploring the meaning of life through devoting myself to art observation and ink brush painting practice. I have come to realize that my cultural roots play a pivotal role in realizing my art vision; on the other hand, absorbing global art nutrition has contributed my own art tremendously and critically.

I studied traditional calligraphy and ink brush painting during my childhood, later learning Chinese and global art history and theory as a young adult. Studying contemporary art curatorship in New York during the late 1990s inspired my art creation and pushed me to find my own concept, vision, and language. I wish my work can go back and forth between traditional and contemporary, fantasy and reality, past and future, natural world and human society, art and science.

Using black, white, and especially the grayish shades in between, my ink brush art exploration has been focused on the representation and simulation of light and brightness, a metaphor for the warmth and hope in each civilization. Starting with one ink brush stroke and then processing line by line, layer by layer, the imagery of light emerges from each rice paper, presenting multiple pictorial worlds vacillating between realistic and abstract space. I constantly redefine my identity through merging elements of international art with distinctly Chinese concepts.

The “light”in my ink brush work was discovered occasionally and simultaneously. I thought this created a huge space, and as a result, it became the core theme. The spatial weave and structure of the ink wash lines present the feeling and expressiveness of light, and I was very much addicted to the sense of infiltration and luster that it showed. The grayscale of the ink created a unique aesthetic, seemingly unrelated to ink wash but expressive and infectious.

My exploration of ink wash is about constantly rediscovering itself. With the help of ink and brush, I intend to establish its natural appearance and then bring something to the viewers that they have not yet perceived or realized, such as the overlapping of nature and freedom, and the subtle relationship between the two, the synesthetic of different people, and more. These ideas have always been underlying concepts supporting my artistic expression.