My paintings are built through relentless revisions and layering—covering, erasing, and remaking. Figurative traces slowly emerge amidst strange abstractions, carrying murmurs of queer joy. I approach painting as a way to transform the psyche, to play with imagination’s elasticity. For me, to paint is to keep the childlike wonder alive in a time of worldweariness.

Yizhen Shen (b. 2003, Shanghai) received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2025. He now lives and works in Shanghai.