Why I Chose These Three Artists

Chinese Art in a Contemporary World | Unique East Art

The contemporary transformation of Chinese art is more than a topic I have been discussing. It is also a long-term endeavor that I am putting into practice through Guilu Art Academy in Shandong, China, and Unique East Art in Los Angeles.

During the preparation of these two art spaces, I have looked at the works of many artists. And throughout this process, I have kept asking myself two questions:

What kind of contemporary art does China need today? And what kind of artists should I choose?

I believe that the contemporary transformation of Chinese art must begin with its own cultural roots, while responding to contemporary life and the relationship between people and the world we live in.

This belief ultimately led me to three artists: Chen Jiuteng, Xianyun, and Chen Siyuan.

Their artistic directions are entirely different. Yet each of them explores a distinct but interconnected question.

Chen Jiuteng: Creating a Contemporary Language from Chinese Tradition

How can Chinese painting develop a contemporary language of its own, one that is truly alive?

Chen Jiuteng has spent more than forty years practicing traditional Chinese painting.

His development of Senxiangism was not a sudden experiment. It emerged from decades of studying and mastering tradition, followed by a conscious decision to move beyond the familiar conventions of brush and ink.

In Senxiangism, the artist begins without a predetermined image.

But the absence of a predetermined image does not mean the absence of order.

The moment ink touches raw Xuan paper, new relationships begin to emerge. The artist must observe what happens, experience it, make judgments, and respond.

Through this continuous process of creation, perception, judgment, and response, the painting gradually develops its own internal order.

And that order is inseparable from the artist's decades of experience, mastery of brush and ink, and individual aesthetic sensibility. It cannot simply be reproduced by someone else.Senxiangism also reflects Chen Jiuteng's personal philosophy of life.

As he puts it, "Painting is like life. Neither can be fully planned in advance."

His art is, in many ways, a reflection of how he understands and approaches life itself.

Xianyun: Rediscovering the Beauty of Everyday Life

Xianyun follows a completely different path.

She has no grand narrative, nor does she attempt to establish the importance of her work through complicated theories.

A little fish, a solitary boat, a bird, or even an ordinary handkerchief—small moments and familiar objects that we might easily overlook in everyday life—all find their way into her paintings.

In an age when everyone is competing for our attention, Xianyun's paintings invite us to rediscover our sensitivity to the quiet, ordinary, and seemingly insignificant things around us.

Through my conversations with her, I have come to know her as a positive and optimistic person.

Her art, therefore, is not an escape from reality.

Instead, it creates a space within reality where our feelings can remain alive, undisturbed by the noise and constant changes of the world around us.

Chen Siyuan: Rediscovering His Cultural Roots

Chen Siyuan has followed yet another path.

He has spent more than forty years exploring abstract and nonrepresentational painting.

When I first saw his work two months ago, I did not think it aligned with the core philosophy of Unique East Art.

But when I looked at his paintings again, I suddenly noticed something that genuinely interested me.

In recent years, a subtle but significant change has begun to emerge in his work.

Rocks, pine trees, bamboo, and other familiar elements of traditional Chinese painting have gradually started to appear within his abstract compositions, sometimes visible, sometimes almost disappearing into the image.

This raised a question that I find particularly compelling:

Can a Chinese artist who has spent decades exploring modernism and abstraction rediscover his relationship with Chinese painting through a distinctive personal language, just as Zao Wou-Ki did in his own way?

For me, this is what makes Chen Siyuan's recent artistic development particularly interesting.

His work opens up another possibility for the contemporary transformation of Chinese art: returning to one's cultural roots after decades of exploring Western modern art.

Three Artists, Three Paths, One Shared Question

I did not choose these three artists simply because they represent three different painting styles.

What interests me is how each of them uses painting to express personal experience and a particular understanding of the world.

In Chen Jiuteng's work, I see a calm and optimistic attitude toward life's uncertainties—a willingness to embrace the unknown and find order within change.

In Xianyun's paintings, I see a search for inner peace in a rapidly changing world, and an appreciation for the quiet beauty of everyday life.

And in Chen Siyuan's recent work, I see an artist who, after decades of exploring Western modern art and living between different cultures, is naturally turning back toward his homeland and cultural roots.

Their paths are different, but they ultimately lead to the same fundamental question:

How can artists create contemporary Chinese art that truly reflects the realities of our time, through their own individual artistic languages?

This is the question I hope to continue exploring through Unique East Art in Los Angeles.