Check Out Huaixuan Xiang’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Huaixuan Xiang.

Hi Huaixuan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have always experienced the world through a strong sense of imagination and sensitivity. As a child, I saw a vast meadow inside my wardrobe, and my spiritual guide would wait for me there. My toy bear could suddenly come alive, singing and dancing, and my dreams often felt so vivid that I would lie in bed describing every strange detail to my mother.
These experiences taught me to observe emotions and images very closely. Drawing became the most natural way for me to communicate what I saw and felt, and to make my inner world visible to others.
As I grew older, I became interested in occult knowledge, meditation, and mythology. I began learning from my grandmother and other teachers. These studies helped me better understand and balance my imagination and creativity.
I later moved from China to New York to study illustration. My work moves between acrylic painting and fantasy illustration, and is deeply influenced by dreams, childhood memories, meditation, and fleeting images from my mind.
Now that I have graduated, my direction feels both clear and still open to discovery. I want to visualize emotions buried within the collective unconscious and create images that help people return to places and moments they may have almost forgotten. I hope my work encourages viewers to slow down, reconnect with themselves, and recognize their own memories within mine. For me, art is not only a form of storytelling, but also a process of self-exploration, connection, and healing.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not always been a smooth road. I think many artists face the challenge of realizing that not everyone will connect with their work. Some viewers have offered thoughtful interpretations of my paintings, while others feel nothing at all or even find them strange, unsettling, or frightening.
For a period of time, I questioned whether I should create work that was more widely accepted or closer to conventional ideas of beauty. Over time, however, I realized that I need to remain true to myself. Work created with honesty and genuine emotion will eventually reach the people who resonate with it. Everyone has different experiences, so it is impossible and unnecessary to seek approval from everyone.
Whenever someone tells me that they connect with my work or shares the memories and emotions it awakened in them, I feel deeply happy. Those conversations are powerful enough to quiet the voices of doubt. I create for the people who can find part of themselves within my work.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a painter and fantasy illustrator. I often create surreal and nostalgic scenes that explores dreams, childhood memory, emotion, and the unconscious.
I am known for my ongoing series, Rule of Dreams, which is inspired by recurring dreams about my childhood in China. In these paintings, I paint my present self entering the dream world. I usually appear wearing a black hat and a black dress. Through this figure, I invite viewers to travel with me through the memories and experiencing different moments.
What I am most proud of is creating work that allows deeply personal experiences to become shared emotional spaces. Viewers have told me that my paintings remind them of their own childhoods, dreams, fears, or forgotten memories. Those moments of recognition are very meaningful to me because they show that an image can connect people across different backgrounds.
What sets my work apart is my deep attachment to dreams and to the emotions that memories can awaken. My interest in occult knowledge and meditation function as as a way of observing these emotions from a slight distance, so I can understand them more clearly without being completely consumed by them.
I also believe that the emotional state an artist enters during creation does not end when the painting is finished. In my own practice, I put a large amount of feeling into each work, and I think that this emotional residue remains within the image itself. It continues to exist in the painting and can quietly affect the viewer, even long after the moment of making has passed.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I began working with acrylic painting in 2025. Before that, much of my practice was digital, but once I started experimenting with acrylic, I quickly fell in love with the physical process.
Compared with spending long hours painting on a computer, I find myself more drawn to the slower and more complicated nature of traditional painting, I like the process of mixing colors and building textures. The material itself often creates unexpected moments. For example, adding slightly more water can completely transform the texture and atmosphere of an image. That unpredictability makes the process feel alive, and each painting contains discoveries that I could not have fully planned in advance.
My creative process is also deeply connected to feeling. Before beginning a painting, I return to the dream, memory, or emotion that inspired it. I try to relive the atmosphere and amplify the feeling until it becomes physically intense, and then I carry that energy through the sketching and painting process. I believe that sincere emotion remains embedded within an artwork and can be felt by viewers, even when they do not know the original story.

Pricing:

• Original paintings: Prices available upon request
• Prints and art merchandise: Available through my website and exhibitions, 6×8 inch prints with white mats $25, 8×10 inch prints with white mats $35

Contact Info:

• Website: https://huaixuanxiang.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ch_oexs/