At first look, Sun Yitian’s work can really feel shiny, crisp and virtually disarmingly acquainted. But beneath their polished surfaces is one thing extra elusive — a rigidity between innocence and artifice, nostalgia and unease. That high quality has made her probably the most intently watched voices in up to date portray in the present day.
Following Art Basel Hong Kong 2026, Sun’s “Ken” (2023) is solely featured within the new Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 Collection on Samsung Art TVs.1
To mark the event, Samsung Newsroom spoke with Sun about her creative philosophy, her visible language and what impressed this collaboration with Samsung Art Store.
Painting the Familiar Anew
Q. “Ken” (2023) is featured on this 12 months’s Art Basel Hong Kong assortment on Samsung Art Store. What’s the that means behind this work?
My earlier iterations of “Ken” have been all comparatively small. This model is the primary time I’ve painted him at a big scale — three meters throughout. I wished the male determine within the portray to develop into the thing of the gaze.
Barbie’s boyfriend feels very attribute of our present second. He has had all roughness and resistance eliminated. He is good-looking, wholesome and radiant. But he’s empty. Inside, he’s simply plastic. He exists solely as Barbie’s counterpart. I didn’t need to paint him as a toy, however as a dwelling, stunning head. When pilgrimage is stripped of conventional religion, it begins to mirror an issue of modernity.
“They were my companions in childhood, and they also carry the imprint of the time we live in.”
Q. Many of your work start with acquainted objects, toys or photographs from on a regular basis life. What attracts you to these topics, and what do they permit you to discover as an artist?
I grew up in China within the 1990s, so I — and most of the people my age — didn’t have siblings. It was additionally a interval of fast financial change, formed by reform and larger openness to world commerce. My hometown, Wenzhou, is understood for manufacturing.
As a baby, I usually visited native factories owned by associates’ households. The meeting strains and showrooms have been full of toys, eyeglasses and such items prepared for export to markets world wide. At residence, I spent a number of time alone with my dolls whereas my dad and mom have been away.
Later, after I was in school, I visited town of Yiwu, recognized for its wholesale markets. I used to be struck by these small on a regular basis objects — their shapes, supplies, colours and textures all appeared to hold the environment of a specific period. That expertise led me to start my “Man-Made Objects” collection.
In the trendy world, objects have develop into more and more short-lived. I really feel connected to those fleeting issues made on meeting strains. They have been my companions in childhood, they usually additionally carry the imprint of the time we reside in.
Q. What does portray permit you to do with these acquainted objects that one other medium may not?
Much like the topics of my work, paint itself can also be a fabric object. In a way, I take advantage of one object — paint — to symbolize one other object by way of realism. What issues to me is the portray’s bodily presence. That is the important thing distinction between a portray and a picture of a portray on a display: the portray exists bodily as an actual, tangible object.
I care deeply concerning the idea of painterliness, however I don’t need my brushwork to be too expressive or too apparent. I don’t need the feel to name consideration to itself on the floor. I favor to let it emerge quietly, in hidden and refined locations.
Where Nostalgia Meets the Present
“As a painter, I know painting is a very old medium. But as a younger artist, I am open to trying new languages and new tools.”
Q. What first drew you to portray…
