Meet Xinyu Wo

We recently connected with Xinyu Wo and have shared our conversation below.

Xinyu, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Career in art creation is a passion that I can strive for throughout my life, but at the same time, the art industry is also a challenging and competitive field. In this world, there are many artists, creators, and dreamers. To stand out in this industry, I believe that confidence and high self-discipline are essential. As a creator, only by being confident in one’s own work and abilities can one possibly gain the favor of others.

How to gain confidence? That’s a good question. I think maintaining confidence requires effort in two parts. The first is to consistently do small things that make you feel confident, which requires accumulation over time. The other part is to have a sufficient understanding of your own abilities. Am I doing what I am good at? Can my beliefs give me strength?

For me, throughout the process of building my confidence, my family has been a great help. Building confidence largely comes from proving to yourself with a lot of facts that you have the ability to “do things well.” With this foundation, you can then challenge yourself with more difficult tasks, even those beyond your current capabilities. When I was very young, my uncle taught me chess. After teaching me the basic skills of the game, he would intentionally let me win a few rounds. Children need encouragement, and he created an illusion for me that “I can achieve victory through my own efforts,” which was quite important for a 5-6-year-old child. My mother runs a document service company locally, and during my primary school years, she would have me help out at her company every summer. She didn’t actually need an extra hand. After I finished organizing the papers for her, she would give me some “payment” to recognize my work, and I would use that money to buy toys I wanted. She made me feel that I could exchange resources through my own diligence.

In traditional East Asian families, “scolding, intimidation, and verbal violence” seem to have become an established way of expression. However, throughout my entire upbringing, the most common words my mother said to me were “you can do it” and “you are different from others.” When I was preparing for the college entrance exam, I was only 17 years old at the time. Tens of thousands of people took the exam, and the preparation period lasted for a year. Naturally, I felt that I had to attend the best art university in order to fulfill my dream. While China’s college entrance exam system may not be able to comprehensively assess a child’s abilities and may even seem dehumanizing, as it highly institutionalizes individuals and completely depersonalizes them, almost all universities are tuition-free. For someone like me from an average family background, this was a turning point that could change my destiny.

At that time, many children like me would often go to bars late at night or not work as hard on their art. I was always quiet, constantly thinking about how I could get into the best art university, and I didn’t go out to play with other kids. Consequently, I inevitably appeared somewhat different, and many kids would isolate me. My mother would tell me, “You are different from them; you are responsible for your goals.” At that time, I only slept for 4 hours a day. Besides sleeping and eating, I spent all my time studying how to tackle the exam. In the end, I successfully achieved the highest score in the province and received early admission to the China Academy of Art.

Throughout my entire growth process, I have encountered many small challenges, and each time, my family has supported me from behind. Gradually, in my understanding, I have accumulated many “phased victory experiences” similar to the college entrance exam. I have also gained a preliminary understanding of my abilities – what can I do? What are the things that I cannot do at all and must seek help from others for? Later on, I went to college, graduated, pursued postgraduate studies abroad, found a job, and established an art studio. I faced even greater setbacks and challenges, where in 80% of cases, I had to face them alone. However, no matter what challenges I encountered, my first reaction was always to remain calm and confident because I understood that confidence is the foundation for overcoming difficulties, even if the difficulty far exceeds my abilities.

There have been times when I felt fragile, doubting my overall abilities due to a small mistake. For example, like now, I occasionally doubt whether I can complete the required number of paintings on time, or if I can become a more outstanding creator. Whenever I have these feelings, I achieve a sense of accomplishment by doing small things, such as swimming 1500 meters, preparing a gourmet dinner, tidying up my room, and so on. For a creator, our mission is to bring beauty to the audience, convey positive visual experiences, spread beauty, love, humor, and criticism. I cannot imagine a world without creators, as everything would be no different from a primitive jungle. However, first and foremost, a qualified creator must cultivate a state of confidence within themselves. How to do it? Use daily small achievements to encourage yourself.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My art creation aims to find the brightness of human nature in the chaotic social landscape. I believe that moral principles and the beauty of human nature represent the ultimate pursuit of civilization and the meaning of human existence.

In fact, the 5,000-year civilization of mankind is a bloody history. Confronting human nature is a quite cruel thing. The essence of marriage is for reproduction, the goal of social interaction is for value exchange, and the truth of love is actually about s*x and attraction. People can indiscriminately kill the innocent for their desires, resort to any means for survival, and betray their principles for profit. If reproduction is the only meaning of human existence, then we are no different from monkeys in the zoo. I often wonder if there is something that sets us apart from animals, something that makes us a little greater. I think the charm of art lies in opening up a non-existent space, allowing chaotic human nature to catch a breath. Different artists provide different ways of looking at the world. If reality is imperfect, then I can create a perfect two-dimensional space through images.

In all of my creations, I try to transform the absurd and chaotic things I see into an aesthetic. In the images I create, surrealism is my main visual expression. For me, purely realistic techniques simply replicate what we see, without guiding the viewer’s visual experience. Surrealism is about deviating the composition and combination of things in different directions based on reality. Reality is orderly, but surrealistic images can be illogical. For the vast majority of viewers, “making life controllable” is the main theme of their lives, so I can provide them with an “out-of-control” image.

If one only wants to make the image “out-of-control,” then children can easily do it. How to make the image attractive is what professional creators need to think about. In my images, the color palette of Impressionism has played a significant role for me. I hope the colors in my images can achieve a harmonious comfort. In selecting elements, I try to choose things that can resonate with the vast majority of viewers, and then I “process” the forms of these elements to show a different way of expression.

Lastly, apart from just the image itself, my images also aim to create a certain narrative. I try to make all elements in the image engage in a dialogue, linking them together, so that different viewers can have different interpretations. Therefore, the images I create can transcend the limitations of the two-dimensional plane.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

First: Stay confident.
Second: Stay optimistic.
Third: Stay curious.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

For an emerging artist who is just starting to make progress in their career, my current main job is to create a large number of high-quality paintings. I must maintain the quality of my paintings as well as the speed of my creations. However, currently, I spend three days a week doing other things to generate income, with a significant portion of this income going towards paying the rent for my studio. This slows down my creative process, which is very disadvantageous for my collaboration with galleries and for allowing people interested in collecting my work to see my growth and efforts. Therefore, I have recently started paying attention to some residency programs. I hope to find a residency program in New York City that can provide a free studio, which will greatly help my creative process. This way, I can have more energy and time to create art pieces.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Wo_Xinyu