Sun Hao1980 Born in Shandong Province2005 Graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts as a master, majoring in materials and expressionNow working for the Beijing Institute of Graphic Design Art InstituteThe integration between ink art and modeling originated in the “renovation of traditional Chinese painting” in the 20th century, and later acquired an important position in the educational system of the Chinese painting after the founding of the New China. Sun Hao, who graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts with a Bachelor Degree and later pursued further education in the Studio of Materials and Expression at China Central Academy of Fine Arts, is the one that makes better combination between the form and structure of sketching and the spirituality of ink painting. The most known works of Sun Hao in recent years are his series of horse portraits. In addition to eyes, noses and ears of horses, Sun also carefully illustrated the blood vessels on the face, which is the part other horse painters have ignored. Sun believes that there is a hidden horse in the heart of everybody. He therefore has endowed the horses in his work with strong spirits, either tranquil or elated, making them fairies waiting for brightness in the dark night. Sun loves things that are related to darkness as he believes that brightness and darkness are of equal importance, none of which is dispensable. The line “the dark night gave me dark eyes, with which I pursue brightness” from Chinese poet Gu Cheng is his favorite. Seeking the bright heroism in darkness is a commonly seen theme in Sun’s creation. And compared to lines, Sun prefers to use light and shadows to outline the form, and usually starts from the dark part and then moves to the light area. Ink painting has boundless possibilities i f we want to innovate the traditional Chinese painting. This is what has been motivating Sun Hao to explore in this field. Having noticed the advantage of ink that can be used to create both volume and abstraction, Sun has been trying ink to paint the marble statues of ancient Greece and Rome, and the Buddhist statues of ancient China and India. Gandhara with both oriental and western features and the Buddhist statues of the Northern Qi Dynasty unearthed in Qingzhou of Shandong Province in East China are his favorite subjects. The freely flowing ink can best illustrate the corrosion of stone. In the bustling discussion of ink art in the past year, the key word for Sun is “tranquility”, which can be seen in his recent series “None”. These works have a soothing effect to the viewers, as it occurred to them that everything is silent, mysterious, spiritual and beautiful. —Ruan Jingjing