Zhao Kailin

A leading contemporary Chinese painter, Zhao Kailin captures introspective, glamorous young Asian women dressed in traditional attire in his portraits. His subjects’ elegance is intended to reflect the beauty of Chinese culture. Zhao, who currently lives in Los Angeles, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1991, where he studied Western-style oil painting. While in school, he encountered three artists who would shape his sensibility as a painter: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and John Singer Sargent. In particular, Zhao cites Sargent’s infamous Madame X (1883–34) as an inspiration for his own bold depictions of women. This reference point is evident in Sleeping Girl with Jade Pendant (2014), a portrait of a young woman in a diaphanous black gown, sold at auction for $50,615 in 2018. Zhao aligns his work with Neoclassicism through his dramatic use of light and shadow and the adoption of Classical compositions and poses. He has exhibited extensively, including in a 2007 survey of Chinese Realism at the National Art Museum of China.