Interview: WU YIMING PAINTING THE BANAL | National Arts
2026-03-03 11:34

Wu Yiming has always given the impression of being approachable and easygoing, so when we proposed an interview, we assumed it would be simple. In reality, however, interviewing Wu Yiming proved rather difficult. His extremely low-key personality made it hard to unfold a conversation. After several invitations, he finally agreed to let us publish a selection of his works. His studio, located at M50 on Moganshan Road, is minimalist and unadorned—seemingly leaving room for nothing but work. In the somewhat cramped space, we began our long-awaited conversation, starting with his upcoming exhibition, “Painting the Banal — Wu Yiming Works Exhibition.”

G: How does your upcoming exhibition, “Painting the Banal — Wu Yiming Works Exhibition,” differ from your previous shows?
W: Each body of work is always slightly different. Life doesn’t copy the previous day.

G: Painting the Banal represents a series you have developed in recent years. Could you introduce your creative process?
W: I observe what is around me and present it through my own experience. If you pay attention to every day you live, every hour, every breath, you will gain very concrete perceptions.

G: The exhibition shows your recent explorations and experiments in painting. Could you talk about your reflections and what you have gained?
W: Establishing a unique personal language is very difficult, and it is not something to pursue deliberately. Yet as an artist, uniqueness must be established. Only time can naturally reveal your truest self in its entirety.

G: What are the characteristics, visual structures, and central theme of the works in this exhibition? What is the core you wish to express?
W: My depiction of the objects around me is certainly not for realism. Black is not used to demonstrate the quality of ink. All things possess spirit; the manifestation of the world exists within every blade of grass and every tree. (Borrowing a Zen saying.)

G: That is indeed a very Zen-like explanation. Your works embody a kind of everyday minimalist beauty. Why do you pursue this artistic effect?
W: Writing reflects the person. I am not complicated.

G: Is pure painterliness your primary concern in the creative process?
W: It’s like the palm and the back of the hand—inseparable.

G: Through objects, what kind of message or inner experience do you hope to convey to viewers?
W: The realm arises from the mind. In this era, all thinking is expressed through the individual’s perception of society and things. “Left” and “right” are not purely theoretical classifications.

G: Behind the simple objects you depict, what is more importantly being suggested?
W: The Curtain series began with the first thing I noticed upon waking in the morning in different spaces. Darkness and light exist within the opening and closing of a single curtain. Shepherd’s purse is one of my favorite vegetables; it is a wild herb. Only in recent years have I seen it cultivated. It has many health benefits, living up to the character “ji” (to aid) in its name.

G: Your works employ classical modernist techniques—attention to color, brushwork, and refined composition—yet also contain much uncertainty, holding many unknown elements. Why adopt this form and material to express something that seems classical yet different from the past?
W: The result of education, and the influence of the times.

G: You are known in your circle as a tireless worker, yet your output is very low. Your process is slow, difficult, with a low success rate—often involving repeated negation. This contrasts sharply with artists who pursue speed and quantity.
W: The quality of a work has no direct relation to speed. Part of my process emphasizes the ideal state of unity between mind and hand. But like speaking, sometimes you fail to control it and say something insincere. Words, once spoken, cannot be taken back. A painting can be redone.

G: Contemporary Chinese art is advancing vigorously. Why choose painting, which may seem unfashionable? The space in this field is already quite narrow. What drives you to persist?
W: At first, I was passionate about many forms of artistic expression and experimented with other media. But in the past two years, I have increasingly felt that time is precious. Practice within one form already occupies all my time. Precisely because the space in painting is small, it requires more time to search for even the slightest possibility. I still consider other forms, but only if they truly align with my thinking. Persistence is also a struggle with oneself.

G: You love calligraphy and seal carving, yet jokingly call them distractions. What value do traditional resources hold for you?
W: Just as traditional Chinese virtues—benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust—largely overlap with Western universal values, the practice of calligraphy and seal carving allows one to experience classical beauty of rhythm and form. There are highly refined, canonical examples directly before you. But I do not equate my academic learning with my artistic creation—they are two different things.

G: Many people advocate a revival of traditional art today, often overusing traditional cultural symbols. What is your view on phenomena of “pseudo-innovation” or “pseudo-tradition”?
W: History tells us there is no tradition that can be simply “revived.” Tradition is a culture formed by generations of individuals creating their own classics. Whether or not to use cultural symbols is a personal matter.

G: Some foreign curators believe Chinese art appears tense, difficult to understand, lacking originality, and visually exhausting. How do you respond?
W: It is hard to imagine a world without problems.

G: In art, people often discuss the relationship between the contemporary and the traditional. How do you see their interaction and transformation?
W: Good contemporary art becomes the tradition of the future. All great art in history was the result of reflecting on the “contemporary” of its time and place. Take literature as an example. Ming and Qing scholars were no less learned than those of the Tang and Song, and some wrote excellent poetry. Yet history did not define them as reviving “tradition.” Instead, novels and opera came to represent that era’s culture and entered into “tradition.”

G: How do you see the relationship between art and life?
W: There is no difference. It’s only a matter of whether one understands this.

G: Finally, please describe your philosophy of life or artistic credo in one sentence.
W: Do your best to do what your heart wants to do; leave the rest to god.

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