Xiya Wang

Artist Statement

I was born in Changchun, northeastern China, and now live and work in New York. I grew up in a devout Buddhist household where daily rituals—reciting sutras, offerings, quiet repetition—shaped how I attend to time, presence, and the felt weight of ordinary moments. Those practices taught me to seek meaning within the “emptiness” of form and to listen for interior rhythms that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Working in oil, charcoal, and watercolor, I paint people and their interactions to probe the emotional life we often hide: small dramas of closeness and misunderstanding, tenderness entangled with pain, and emotions that feel monstrous when we don’t know how to contain them. My work treats these states with compassion and scrutiny, rendering them as complex, human, and necessary.
My influences include the psychological clarity and depth of Elena Ferrante and James Baldwin, the painterly immediacy of Sargent and Sorolla, Helen Frankenthaler’s color, and the tactile restraint of mokuhanga. I aim for a style both tranquil and dynamic; when someone stands before my paintings, I hope they recognize something of themselves, pause, and feel the quiet, luminous pleasure of simply looking.