Traveler's Notebook No.3 Painting

Sun has achieved the ultimate Chinese tradition in brush paintings, in which the Qi [energy] the Yun [rhythm] flow vividly. Her creations are embedded with atmospheric, poetic Eastern way of life. The viewers, on the other hand, receive her determine yet subtle touches of tranquility and elegance. —Mr. Wu Wei Ming, Director, Macau Museum of Art The art of Ines Sun straddles the worlds of East and West, as Mr. Ming observed in his comments on Sun’s Hyde Park in Spring, which was shown in “Beyond the Surface,” an exhibition of Chinese abstract art held in 2008. Sun was born in YEAR in Taipei, where she studied art before coming to New York in 1991 to pursue a master’s degree at New York University. Sun’s artistry is deeply rooted in the ancient tradition of Chinese scholarly painting, though she first studied Abstract Expressionism at the Art Students League of New York. Her ability to seamlessly interfuse the disciplines of abstraction and Chinese freehand brushwork is rare. Her immersion in East and West does not come from intellectual choices but rather from her equal fluency in both cultures, which has shaped her unique point of view. Sun’s blossoms series, her determined single brushstroke, and her inner strength have led her devoted patron Mei Ying, Director of Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York, to call Sun the “Georgia O’Keefe of the East.” A pioneer in her art and her life, Sun courageously packed up her young family and traveled in China and New Zealand from 2007 to 2010, searching for inspiration for her work. Sun’s Wild Lily Tea Room, which Florence Fabricant of the New York Times called “a serene oasis with a small pool of water set into its multilevel stone floor,” was open in Chelsea, New York, from 1998 to 2006. Sun created this multilevel space to connect like-minded souls through art and tea. Celebrity customers came regularly to the humble tearoom, drawn by Sun’s hospitality. Sun strives to create that moment of poetry in life that often remains hidden. Sun has exhibited in the United States, New Zealand, and China, and her work is represented in private collections worldwide. She is also a writer, having published a memoir, Luck 5.4, in 2015. She has her own column on art and life at Storm Media, an online news outlet based in Taiwan. Sun lives and works in Brooklyn.