MIN Jingyao

Min Jingyao was born in 2000 in Yibin, Sichuan. She graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts (XAFA) in 2024. Currently, she is pursuing her Master’s degree in the same department at XAFA. Her artistic practice focuses on weaving lost time and ideals into her paintings, exploring the spiritual trajectory of personal growth through a blend of realism and dreamlike imagery.

Dream of Youth II  is a visual tapestry woven from lost years and innocent ideals. Against a backdrop of quiet, dark tones, the composition centers on a youth holding a transparent sphere. Soft light and shadow brush across his features and the folds of his clothing, creating a dreamlike, theatrical atmosphere. Through this image, the artist seeks to capture the “youthful dream”—one that, though tempered by reality, has never been fully extinguished in the depths of the heart.

The transparent sphere serves as a metaphor for these dreams: at once fragile and pure, it evokes the individual’s return to the self after negotiating with reality. The work is not merely a tribute to youth, but a spiritual force quietly gathering in stillness, capable of reshaping and restoring the individual’s ideals.