The Grand Tour · 2026 China Academy of Art (CAA) Graduation Season has come to a successful close. Graduates from 20 academic units responded to the times with art and explored the future through creativity, unfolding a youthful narrative of ideals, journeys, and growth across the city and campus, transforming Hangzhou into an open art venue that gathers intellectual power, creativity, and action.

The China Academy of Art is proud to launch the "Youth Insights" series, which continues to focus on topics such as avant-garde experimentation, humanities and technology, rural academies, A better China, rooted construction, people-centered, poetic cinema, visual sinology, Eastern design, and overseas insights. The series closely follows how young creators measure the world with their footsteps and respond to the times with their works. Between every departure and arrival, we jointly witness the grand explorations and boundless possibilities of a new generation of artists.

Summoned by the deep call of civilizational roots and shaped by the dynamic currents of global visuality, the paintings of "visual sinology" range from the cosmological vision of "heaven and humanity as one" in landscape scrolls to the seasonal whispers of flora's cycles in watermarked woodblock prints. Though working across different media, the creators share a common commitment to "bearing witness through images and conveying the Way through art." Whether through the refined brushwork on rice paper that carries the spirit of literati tradition, or the woodblock explorations that preserve cultural heritage, both paths trace the deep grammar of Chinese visual experience. Within a global historical framework, these works are not mere replicas of tradition, but experimental reconstructions—where brush and knife converge—to forge a "visual atlas" that spans scroll and print, uniting the cultivation of the mind with the mastery of craft.

In the Chan Stillness, Mount Hua Shimmers with Autumn's Chill

Mo Junjie

College/School:

School of Chinese Painting

Supervisor:

Lin Haizhong

Medium: 

Chinese Painting

Artist Statement

This work draws from a first-hand experience of a grand journey to Mount Hua on an autumn night, capturing the profound and tranquil Chan (Zen) essence of the phrase "In the Chan stillness, Mount Hua shimmers with autumn's chill," from which the title derives. As dusk falls, mist and smoke rise, and cold fog lingers among the layered peaks. The towering, rugged grandeur of Mount Hua yields its sharp edges, returning to the tranquil, serene essence of the empty mountains. Spreading the paper and wielding the brush, I meticulously render the perilous cliffs, deep ravines, and gnarled ancient pines, seeking to convey both the lush vitality of the mountain forests and the crisp, sparse autumn bones of the cold peaks. I strive to integrate the majestic grandeur of Mount Hua with its secluded quietude on the silk—using the interplay of openness and closure, and the shifting dynamics of brushwork and ink, to express the wondrous charm of hidden peaks within towering ranges and the harmonious fusion of vital energy. In this work, I fully invest my personal insights from ascending the mountain on a grand journey and my serene Chan reflections into the language of brush and ink.

Advisor's Message

Drawing from a first-hand experience of an autumn night's grand journey to the West Peak of Mount Hua, this work is anchored in the quiet Chan essence of "In the Chan stillness, Mount Hua shimmers with autumn's chill," achieving a profound and refined conception. The composition is structured with balanced openness and closure, and the brushwork and ink interplay skillfully between emptiness and substance—revealing both the formidable strength of the mountain's form and the tranquil, serene atmosphere of the autumn night's empty peaks. The artist demonstrates a natural ability to integrate his genuine experiences of the ascent and his serene Chan reflections into the language of landscape ink painting. He also exhibits outstanding capacity for distilling and transforming real scenes, as well as an independent aesthetic and critical sensibility. Should he continue to refine the subtle intricacies of brushwork and ink, and deepen the restrained, introspective quality of the quiet Chan atmosphere, the overall artistic conception would attain even greater profundity.

Mo Junjie

Born in Hangzhou in 1997. Holds a Ph.D. in Chinese Landscape Painting from the China Academy of Art.

-Sun Gong Cang Qing Shan（Mr. Sun's Hidden Green Mountain） — Outstanding Award at the 8th Zhejiang Provincial Youth Art Exhibition; Gold Award for Graduation Creation at the China Academy of Art. Selected for the 2025 "Baoshi Fenggu" 3rd Chinese Painting Biennale (hosted by the China Artists Association).

- Jie Tai Ting Song (Listening to Pines at the Ordination Terrace) — Selected for the 2025 Hunan Chinese Painting Biennale (hosted by the China Artists Association).

-Feng Huo Tian Mu (Beacon Fire at Tianmu Mountain)— Selected for the 2025 Wannian Pujiang Chinese Painting Exhibition (hosted by the China Artists Association).

- Shui Feng Qing Wang Xi Hu Xue Ye (Clear Gaze at West Lake on a Snowy Night) — Awarded the Hong Kong Liu Guosong Ink Art Prize (Merit Award).