Bian Kai 边凯

b. 1981, Liaoning, China; lives and works in Beijing, China.

Bian Kai 's contemporary brush-based visual narratology integrates and reconfigures the conventions of landscape painting with the theatricality and multileveled symbolism of mythological, philosophical and religious popular narrative. Grounded in the spatial rigor and realm-construction principles of Song dynasty landscapes, religious mural painting and Tibetan thangka painting, his practice moves beyond the literati tradition's emphasis on spontaneous brushwork toward a dynamic synthesis of structured composition, narrative expression, and spiritual inquiry. Working primarily with mineral pigments on silk, linen and paper, he meticulously processes his materials to create surfaces that are both luminous and layered. Bian Kai received his doctoral degree in landscape painting from the School of Chinese Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2014, where he currently serves as Associate Professor of Landscape Painting. He is also a member of the China Artists Association and the China Gongbi Painting Society. In 2021, he received the prestigious Liu Kuo-sung Ink Art Award.

Bian Kai has participated in major exhibitions such as "Oriental Wisdom, Contemporary Art Themed on Chinese Traditional Culture" (2024), "The 5th National Exhibition of Chinese Painting" (2023), "The 10th International Ink Art Biennale of Shenzhen" (2019), "Gentle Wind Across Mountain Screens: The 5th Chinese Painting Biennale of Hangzhou" (2018), and "Integration - Fusion and Adaptation, Wuhan Ink Art Biennale-Pursuit by Ink" (2017). His works are held in numerous public and private collections in Hong Kong and China including the permanent collection of the Guangdong Museum of Art.