My work aims to depict a self that wanders in the emotional space between nothingness and existence — a person quietly negotiating the fragility of desire, memory, and identity. I am drawn to ambiguous emotions: those we feel but cannot name. Painting becomes my way of making these moments last a little longer, of giving form to things that might otherwise dissolve. As D.H. Lawrence once wrote, people are like a mythical fruit — beautiful until touched, and then they begin to fade. I find that beauty unbearable, so I try to leave something behind.
SunJing
SunJing (born 1986, Wuhan, China) is a contemporary painter whose emotionally nuanced practice explores the vulnerability and complexity of human experience, often through the lens of female subjectivity. She currently lives and works in Beijing.
SunJing’s work is rooted in both personal reflection and cultural memory. Her painting practice emerged from a profound sensitivity to impermanence — to the quiet dread of loss, mortality, and emotional disappearance. In response, her work seeks to hold onto moments, desires, and states of mind that are otherwise fleeting. Through watercolor and traditional Chinese gongbi fine brush techniques, layered with imagined narrative and symbolic spaces, she constructs images that oscillate between realism and fantasy.
Her early influences include traditional Oriental paintings — such as Chinese court lady portraits and Japanese ukiyo-e — as well as her academic training in Western figure painting. Her style developed as a self-conscious negotiation between these visual legacies, resulting in a delicate equilibrium between structure and softness, clarity and suggestion. In her compositions, figures often exist in states of suspended tension: postures that suggest inner dialogue, gazes that linger between vulnerability and assertion, gestures that reveal more than they conceal.
SunJing draws inspiration from personal encounters, literature, cinema, and music — reconstructing emotional scenes that are fictionalized yet deeply felt. Her figures are not limited by realism or identity; rather, they serve as metaphors for the fragmented nature of memory and the emotional fragility of being. Through a muted and refined palette, she creates ambiguous atmospheres where the viewer is invited to reflect on their own inner world.
Though her practice has frequently focused on the female figure, SunJing's interest is not ideological but psychological. She regards femininity as complex, strategic, and ambivalent — sometimes melancholic, sometimes mischievous, always emotionally intelligent. In recent years, she has also turned to male figures and symbolic environments, expanding the emotional spectrum of her work.
SunJing’s recent exhibitions include Xiao Sui Yue at September Art (Guangzhou, 2020), and she has participated in major international art fairs such as ART021 (2024). Her work is part of the Corridor Foundation Collection.