KONG BAIJI

• KONG BAIJI was born in Shanghai, where he studied traditional Chinese landscape painting under professional painters from an early age and later developed an interest in printmaking and Western painting techniques. After teaching at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, he endured the devastation of losing his works and materials during the Cultural Revolution. His creative period in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang led him to establish a deeply spiritual artistic direction, followed by solo exhibitions in Japan and the United States before settling in New York. Working primarily in oil, he depicts religious and Buddhist motifs as well as a worldview that fuses Eastern and Western traditions, resulting in a distinctive style marked by symbolism, spirituality, and cultural synthesis.