Hanying Xu – SAIC Graduation Exhibition 2026

SAIC SHOWS 2026 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2026 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Hanying Xu

Post Baccalaureate

Post-Baccalaureate Annual Exhibition

hanying.xu@outlook.com

Hanying Xu is a painter and interdisciplinary artist currently based in Chicago. Her work explores the relationship between nature, spirituality, and inner perception through abstraction. Influenced by Daoist philosophy, Carl Jung’s theories of the unconscious, and meditative experience, she constructs layered compositions that evoke unseen energies and inner landscapes between the physical and spiritual realms. Gesture, perception, and spontaneous brushwork guide her approach, allowing continual transformation and sustained dialogue with materials. Xu holds degrees in Econometrics and Management from the University of Sydney and completed post-baccalaureate studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. She is currently a post-baccalaureate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded the Visionary Scholars Award. Her work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, and Boston, including exhibitions at A Space Gallery, Flowing Space Gallery, and SAIC juried exhibitions, and has been featured in Divide Magazine (Issue 17).

Hanying Xu - Between State

Between State, 2025, Oil on canvas, 36''x48'', photo by Hanying Xu

Between State unfolds as a blue field that operates as a breathing space rather than a defined form. The painting holds an atmosphere where perception can expand and settle, allowing time to slow and soften. Through layered translucency and subtle shifts in gesture, the work maintains a state of suspension.

Hanying Xu - Inner flame

Inner flame, 2025, Oil on canvas, 48x60 in.,photo by Hanying Xu

Inner Flame emerges from a field of warmth and turbulence, where energy gathers, circulates, and transforms beneath the surface.

Hanying Xu - Fleeting

Fleeting, 2025, Oil on canvas, 61x69 in., photo by Hanying Xu

Fleeting captures an ecstatic, transitional moment experienced while immersed in the deep forest—a state suspended between dimensions, where perception loosens and boundaries dissolve. Rather than illustrating a landscape, the painting embodies this fleeting state itself. Layered gestures and shifting densities suggest motion without fixed direction, evoking a sense of passing through rather than arriving. Forms appear and recede, mirroring the instability of consciousness at the threshold between presence and transcendence.

Hanying Xu - Astral

Astral, 2025, Oil on canvas, 61x69 in.,photo by Hanying Xu

Astral explores the relationship between the fleeting moment and eternity. The painting attempts to project a transient state of perception into a continuous, timeless field.

Hanying Xu - Unseen Spirit

Unseen Spirit, 2025, Oil on canvas, 61x69 in., photo by Hanying Xu

Unseen Spirit explores the presence of invisible forces that exist beyond material form yet quietly shape perception, emotion, and consciousness. The work emerges from an intuitive process of layering and erasure, where translucent color fields and organic gestures accumulate into a shifting energetic space. Rather than depicting a specific image, the painting holds a state—one that hovers between appearance and disappearance. The surface functions as a threshold: traces of movement, light, and density suggest an unseen vitality flowing beneath what is visible. These subtle transitions invite slow looking, allowing the viewer’s perception to unfold over time. In this sense, the work is not complete without the presence of the viewer, whose attention activates the latent spirit embedded in the composition. Unseen Spirit offers a contemplative space where intuition, uncertainty, and quiet resonance coexist, evoking an encounter with what cannot be fully named yet deeply felt.

I have always felt a sense of distance from the world, as if part of me watches Earth from another realm. As a child, I was introspective and quiet, finding human social structures strange and overwhelming. Yet, I have always found more solace in the wilderness— among trees, rocks, and animals—than in the company of people. This sense of disconnection has fueled my drive to explore the unseen energies that govern life, and it has shaped my artistic journey. I embrace uncertainty, boundlessness, and continual transformation, seeking a sense of eternity within fleeting moments. My artistic practice captures the states between different dimensions, using painting to communicate with the unseen energies.

My current painting practice emerges from otherworldly states encountered within daily experience. Certain places in nature, specific moments in time, and shifts in sound can draw me into heightened awareness. I paint from within this condition, allowing images to emerge through sensation and intuition. Influenced by Carl Jung’s ideas on the unconscious, Daoist thought, and my own meditation practice, I build inner landscapes through painting.

My painting always starts with active imagination. I use intuitive brushstrokes, allowing the painting to respond to me as I work. Painting serves as a medium for me to channel the physical and spiritual. My rapid brushstrokes are means of communication between the world I try to build and my soul. Works such as Fleeting, Astral, and Unseen Spirit reflect these perceptual states, tracing moments of transformation in which awareness briefly expands beyond ordinary experience.

My future direction is to further develop large-scale painting as my primary medium, using scale to establish a perceptual field rather than a singular image. While painting remains central to my practice, it expands through installation, sound, and material experimentation, forming immersive environments that visualize inner landscapes and heightened states of awareness.

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