Song Xiping is a contemporary artist whose practice is rooted in Guohua (Traditional Chinese Painting) and developed through a modern visual approach. Working with painting as her core medium, she focuses on the relationship between material, structure, and pictorial order, integrating conceptual thinking into the construction of the image. Rather than relying on narrative or overt emotional expression, her works emphasize rhythm, layering, and spatial coherence as a way of responding to lived experience and cultural perception.

Guohua refers to China’s indigenous painting system, historically distinguished from Western-style painting introduced and developed in modern times. It is traditionally executed with brush, water-based ink, and mineral or plant pigments, most commonly on paper or silk. Among these supports, Xuan paper is particularly valued for its distinctive fibrous structure and high absorbency, which allows pigments to diffuse, spread, and settle naturally on the surface. In this process, the material itself becomes an active participant in shaping the visual language of the work.

Song consciously incorporates this material behavior into her practice. Rather than avoiding the natural diffusion of pigment on Xuan paper, she integrates it into the compositional framework. Her works are often structured through horizontal spatial arrangements, distributed color fields, and repetitive gestures, creating visual spaces that exist between abstraction and landscape. The resulting viewing experience is terrain-like, shaped by accumulated layers of color, material texture, and spatial rhythm.

While retaining Guohua’s sensitivity to rhythm and spatial relationships, Song reorganizes pictorial order through a contemporary lens, allowing her work to move beyond medium-specific or regional classifications. In recent years, her works have been presented in art projects and exhibitions both in China and internationally, and have entered professional exhibition systems and public art spaces.

Exhibitions

2024 — Solo presentation, Zhuai Ma Art Space, 798 Art District, Beijing

2024 — Horizon, selected for the 22nd London Design Art Exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, United Kingdom

2024 — Exploring Ink, selected for the HORIZONS International Art Exhibition, Kyoto, Japan

2022 — Gaze, Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci Museum, Rome, Italy

2021 — Global Ink Painting Exhibition, Hong Kong Central Library