Feng Xiaomin was born in Shanghai in 1959. He is an intellectual family and began to study Chinese ink painting and calligraphy since childhood. Nearly 30 years later, he moved to Paris to pursue an art career. He participated in the École Nationale esupérieuredes beaux-Arts de Beaux-Arts des in Paris and began developing a painting style inspired by Chinese and French artistic traditions. His abstract and colorful paintings are worshipped by individual and institutional collectors, and have a unique visual influence on the tranquility and fluidity of the picture plane.
Feng has come a long way to strive to develop a style that bridges Chinese and French artistic languages. “In my first exhibition, I showed twenty-eight pieces, but none of them sold. It was very frustrating,” Feng told the observer. His ink paintings were exhibited outside of his cultural background and needed more mediation to be appreciated by the audience. After a frustrating experience, he spent a lot of time thinking about how his work talked to the French art background and began pairing the new media that he spent years with the technology that was perfected by the new media.
Feng said that Chinese painting does not pursue the depth of color texture like European oil paintings, but emphasizes the smoothness of the brushes on the entire picture plane – European audiences are often associated with watercolors. “The pursuit of color effects is embedded in European art because inspiration is everywhere: unique properties, history, and even more Quotidian things, such as the planning of shop windows,” he said. He eventually realized that using traditional ink pigments could not achieve the depth of this color. Fan added: “I found that the more vibrant, more diverse color schemes in the oil paintings speak better for French audiences, so I worked hard to create a more obvious color effect. My first step was to put my paintings on Chinese rice paper because the paper surface was too fragile.”
See: Koyo Kouoh's death leaves uncertainty at the 2026 Venice Biennale
When trying canvas, Feng believed that he inherited the tradition of Chinese ink painting that he inherited. “When I was young, we all painted through modeling of painting manuals (such as the ones in Mustard Seed Gardens) and thought it was the best form of painting,” he explained. “However, what it teaches us is a highly stylized way of drawing individual subjects, which, to some extent, limits personal creativity. Painters have to go beyond that or everyone's work will eventually look the same.”
In Feng's works, there are still elements of Chinese painting that remain more or less complete. His composition and painting proportions follow the principles of Chinese calligraphy, especially the treatment of spaces that are intentionally left to blank spaces to create a sense of breadth. Rendering and permeation of colors – and the unique and sporadic reaction of pigments,
When watching Feng's works, people think of many masters, from Chinese landscape painters such as Jews to modern Western artists such as JMW Turner or Cézanne. “It's interesting because these painters happen to be the painters I like,” Feng smiled. “I always think that before other painters like Monet, Turner was actually a pioneer of Impressionism. To be honest, I wasn't very interested in Turner's early college paintings, but he had a big surge in creativity at the end of his life, and in his life he broke the concepts and traditions of painting. The experience of painting was very rare.
Feng believes that finding his own artistic voice is one of the most important things a painter can do. “I don't think of other people's style when I'm only focusing on my canvas. But, I know, when one surrounds these works, I know that one might unconsciously influence other painters,” he admitted. “I'm very alert about this and try not to be surrounded by other people's style.”
Because of his unique abstraction and his contribution to Chinese and French contemporary art, Feng is often mentioned with other Chinese French abstract painters such as Zao Wou-ki or Chu teh-chun, with whom he has a personal relationship. “People often describe my paintings as bridging Chinese art,” Feng said. “I think my style develops naturally, not intentionally. The art education and training that a person receives throughout his life.
Every painting by Feng Xiaomin, even similar paintings, takes different time to complete, and Feng rarely feels completely satisfied with his output. “This subtle process is related to emotions, nature, temperature, and sometimes I don't actually know why,” Feng said, adding that he believes that the ability to exist and not exist is observed through the Taoist lens and the ability to control the painting process. The time required to practice calligraphy and painting is particularly long, and the training is about the control of the brush. However, when it takes too long, it becomes uncontrollable. Therefore, from the perspective of philosophical relations, the natural and perfect reflection of the canvas is the balance of yin and yang.
When asked to comment on the view that painting dies in the contemporary art market, Feng disagreed: “Painting is difficult as a field because there are too many painters there and it is difficult for painters to build their own. People have been saying that painting has been dead for decades, but painting as a medium has been alive for thousands of years and is still alive.
This fall, Feng will hold a new solo exhibition in Singapore. His shows focus almost entirely on new paintings, and rarely revisit older works. Feng said he no longer titled his work or exhibition to allow space to imagine. “I used to spend a lot of time thinking about titles, but I realized that names may limit people’s perception of painting.” He might use, for example
“Chao Xiaomin, through the lights” until May 17, 2025 on the New York Opera Landscape.
