Sun Yao 孙尧

Yao Sun (b. 1974, Shanghai) is a Chinese painter working primarily with oil. He received his BA and PhD from the China Academy of Art, and his MFA from the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University.

From a young age, he was fascinated by the science fiction genre. During his training, he developed an obsessive dedication to capturing the nuances of the human body, which heavily influenced his artistic process. Sun’s practice centers on the exploration of the human condition and the meaning of individual existence. In his work, the combination of cosmic and natural phenomena, alongside the delicate yet complex structure of human tendons, nerves, and faces, merges to create his distinctive abstract landscapes.

Over the years, Sun developed his unique “classical abstract” art style through his continuous research of Baroque art. In his painting process, Sun often uses his fingers, cloth, custom-made palette knives, and brushes to smudge, wipe, and scrape, creating tactile textures reflective of his painting philosophy. From his early series Body and Landscapes of the Face to the ongoing series like Neverland and Inner Universe, the artist navigates as a bold voyager – alone yet solitary – crossing imagined realms of nature and the unknown. By reflecting on life's limits and what lies beyond, he forges a contemporary vision of the sublime.