Yang Xun (b. 1981), a native of Chongqing, attended the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute graduating from the oil painting department in 2005. Since his graduation, Yang Xun has taken part in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, and has been recognized as one of the most original painters of his generation. Currently he lives and works in Beijing. Deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture and imagery, Yang Xun’s body of work often draws its inspiration from the world of Chinese gardens, Chinese opera as well as the iconographic patterns of moon-shaped flower paintings dating back to the Song Dynasty. Rays of light, another leitmotif of Yang’s oeuvre, shine from the heart of the compositions of the artist, unfolding in front of the viewer and blooming like fireworks imbued with a transient yet extraordinary beauty. In Yang’s paintings and most recent installations, light is used to search for memories and fix fragments of history in time; it acts as the eternal time machine, the mental link that the artist employs to create a link between the past and the present. Devoid of any human presence, Yang Xun's pieces are a reflection on the complex relationship between contemporary life and the traditional patterns that used to be at its core.