Yuqian Sun is an internationally award-winning artist currently based in Toronto. She will be creating art and attending events and exhibitions there for a few years.
Her Artificial Fairies series is an on-going watercolor series of portraits Yuqian does for her dolls. Yuqian’s work always reflects how much she adores the unique beauty of these dolls and the history behind doll aesthetics in various cultures.
After receiving her first 2 ball-jointed-dolls as the present for her 14th birthday, she fell in love with these resin dolls and started collecting them. During high school and college, she took dolls out to the forest to practice out-door photography, which she uses to create her watercolor and oil paintings.
Unlike how modern literature and art portrays doll as, Yuqian aimed for creating artworks that turn these externally lifeless models into internally living objects. She focuses on capturing the subtle expression of these lively dolls, creating an illusion that they are actually breathing, smiling, and about to talk with their gem-like eyes. At the same time, she makes the joints and the solid surface of them very noticeable, highlighting the fact that they are only an imitation of human beings.
Watercolor is her primary medium of choice. When working on representational paintings with watercolor, Yuqian imagines capturing a solid form with intangible materials like water and light. Yuqian has learned to be confident yet humble to cooperate with water instead of controlling it. Water-flow calms her down, teaches her to be honest with herself, and brings her inner world onto the paper.
Yuqian won Best in Show in Fusion Art’s Light & Shadow Art Exhibition in December 2022.
Yuqian Sun Artist Biography
Yuqian Sun was born in Shenzhen, China in 1997. At the age of 14, she came to the U.S. to achieve her goal as a young artist. After graduating from Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, she earned her BFA degree at the University of Michigan in 2019.
At the age of 21, Yuqian published her original photography book, and held her first personal watercolor exhibition. Watercolor is the medium she studied the most in the past 9 years. The emotional intensity that emerges in the poetic flow of translucent color is the reason of her obsession with the medium.
Yuqian Sun Artist Statement
My art practice is derived from my doll photography works, which I started practicing when I was a kid. It started as a pure hobby, and turned into a long and comprehensive method of creation that carries my aesthetics.
I studied and experimented with traditional mediums, striving to refine my painting style into a unique authorship. I look for the ideal doll in doll images I create. Inspired by visual beauty of these mass-produced toy dolls in real life, my work proceeds to discuss the context derived from the meanings behind objects that are human beings’ artificial imitations.
Visit Yuqian at the below links to learn more about her, her art and to buy an artwork from her.
| Website | Flickr | Behance |
Click on the Thumbnail Images Below to see the Artwork in a Lightbox
