“In the midst of the river, waves surge to the sky; on the frontier, wind and clouds merge with the earth's shadow.” (Autumn Meditations, Part One, By Du Fu)
The terms “waves” and “trends of thought” are popular designations, each associated with the significance of the times yet differing in essence. Sun Yao’s works portray his feelings and observations of the inner spiritual and emotional world of humanity purely and delicately, showcasing a grand interconnected universe from a microscopic perspective. Through perception, he abstracts imagined images, expressing in his paintings continuously surging and flowing unknown structures with sometimes strong, sometimes ambiguous color combinations, attempting to construct a coexistence form with multiple universes and diverse lives. Between nebulae, deserts, black holes, and mountains and rivers, Sun Yao creates distinctly different landscapes belonging to the inner traits of humanity, exploring the profound connection between the unfathomable inner world and the vast universe, experiencing the unknown through the distant contemplation of inner and outer homomorphism.
Sun Yao studied under renowned realistic painter Xu Mangyao and Shanghai’s well-known abstract painter Wang Jieyin. During his doctoral studies, he learned from Xu Jiang, the former dean of the China Academy of Art, and the famous artist Jiao Xiaojian and Situ Li. He developed a unique style of expressive painting, reflecting on the original relationship between nature and humanity. In his creative process, Sun Yao does refer to photographs, but rather than replicating them, he uses specific landscapes, events, or scenes as references as inspiration sources, and then mapped his impressions onto the canvas, gradually blurring and abstracting them, resulting in paintings with blurry, abstract qualities. His works depict flowing, ephemeral landscapes, stripping away specific imagery to evoke a sense of familiarity. The flowing brushstrokes in his works convey a sense of speed and fluidity, akin to the concept of entropy, offering a multi-dimensional and internal sensory experience.
Sun Yao subtly guides the audience into the painting through the titles of his works. The flowing brushstrokes within the works become elements that need to be understood from the physical aspects of time, space, and even quantum mechanics. In the concept of “entropy increase”, both speed and direction are forms of entropy change. Sun Yao gives the imagined universe a multidimensional inner feeling, while maintaining aesthetic appeal. Behind the connection of canvas, brush, and pigment, there seems to be an unusual randomness and disorder, woven into a brilliant spectacle amidst the visual tumult. Sun Yao’s approach reminds one of the German artist Gerhard Richter’s “photo-painting” technique and his abstract and realistic paintings. In the 1960s, Richter pioneered the “photo-painting” style, reproducing photographs on canvas in a blurred and abstract manner, which had a significant influence on contemporary Chinese painting. Richter’s method of blurring the boundaries of form created works that were both figurative and abstract, and through this technique, he explored the relationship between photography and painting. Unlike the calm and neutral nature of Richter’s paintings, Sun Yao’s works carry strong emotional characteristics. However, in terms of revealing the artist’s keen inner perception, they both converge. Sun Yao depicts the mysterious passage connecting the imagined world within the heart and the reality of life, fantasy, and reality, in contrast to Richter’s calm and neutral imagery.
Additionally, as a graduate of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, Sun Yao’s creations blend the brushwork of traditional Chinese painting with the characteristics of Western expressionism. He further develops his style in a deeply emotional and symbolic manner. Particularly, Sun Yao’s themes often revolve around the confrontation between humanity and the external world, questioning whether to participate or intervene. His main series include:
In the “Neverland” series, diverse landscapes containing multiple symbols, dynamic brushstrokes, subjectively inclined colors, mottled and layered traces of painting, as well as profound images erased or intentionally hidden, create scenes that alternately rage like storms, devouring everything, and then calm like still water, with all things silent. In these clouded and mysterious exotic landscapes, the primal force of life and the kinetic energy of the world continuously generate, gather, circulate, and flow, forming the ever-changing appearance of Sun Yao’s works and the conservation of the inner world;
The “Deep Forest” series explores the primal relationship between humans and nature, with light and shadow, brightness and darkness hidden within the works, presenting effects that resemble both traditional Chinese landscape painting and Western abstract art. Sun Yao combines traditional Chinese landscape scenery with human facial portraits, using black-and-white monochrome to demonstrate the artist's mastery of the medium. Many artists during the Renaissance period often neglected concrete expressions of individuals and things, yet they showed an extraordinary interest in depicting landscapes. What they were more concerned about was the symbolic significance of the ultimate fate of humanity and the world contained within natural objects;
The “River Runs Through It” series directly confronts humanity’s infringement upon nature, expressing regret and reflection. It articulates the symbiotic relationship between humans and their environment while also exploring the interactions and balance between the individual and the collective, human nature and the nature of the world, creation and nature.
Sun Yao’s works draw inspiration from historical contexts and integrate traditional artistic forms, ultimately forming his own artistic style. Whether in color or monochrome, he adeptly infuses his emotions and romantic poetry into a contemporary artistic realm. His latest creation, the “Inner Universe” series, presents the surging waves of artistic trends from both East and West, the undulating waves of joyful sounds, the light and shadow reflections of dense forests, and the radiation waves of the unknown cosmos. Through various elements such as color, light, sound, and even a single thought, Sun Yao creates a tangible portrayal of a surging and pulsating curve, referred to as “waves”, continuously crashing and echoing, provoking excitement, resonance, and contemplation in the viewer’s heart, evoking a sense of “waves encompassing the sky and earth”.