A Solo Virtual Exhibition: Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age

Posted on February 4, 2026 by mfsadmin

Gallery 2727 in Berkeley is presenting my solo virtual exhibition: Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age (February 1 – March 3, 2026), featuring 21 figurative and portrait paintings of mine.

College Town

Our Winter of Discontent, 2018, oil on canvas

Our Winter of Discontentoil on canvas, 22"x28", 2018

I depict life frankly and critically, as visual surfaces and interior qualities. Instead of verisimilitude, I strive to discover and capture what is hidden, emphasizing the implicit and the unspoken.

Though I sometimes use more vibrant colors to express enhanced emotions, or allow more exuberant colors to generate a dimension of visual excitement, acknowledging that joy remains, I tend to narrow my palette, deliberately stripping away the noise.

For Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age, I have assembled a group of twenty-one oils painted over the last twenty-some years, mostly portraits and figurative pieces. The majority of these are black and white, while some are mainly monochromatic with muted coloration, and a few are inverted images like photographic negatives. All the sitters, singly or in groups, are melancholic, sad, yearning, or resigned. These images comment on the often sad, isolated nature of modern life, and on a social fabric torn apart by class divides and political schisms, depriving people of identity, hope, and self-determining agency.

Presenting these images in muted tones, or even black and white, transforms the sitters into ghostly silhouettes that evoke fading memory and a distorted world, where the familiar has become alien and corrupt.

The exhibition also strives to capture the paradox of our time: a world more “connected” than ever, yet populated by individuals who feel more lonely, miserable, and profoundly divided than at any point in history.

Sense of Place

Posted on August 8, 2025 by mfsadmin

In August 2025, I participated a group show at Gallery 2727 in Berkeley, titled “Sense of Place“.

Though all my four paintings submitted were accepted for this show, due to space limitation, I chose display only three paintings.

The four paintings are quite descriptive: a person sitting next to an empty chair; an empty room with a lamp and a piano but no person; a woman looking out of a window, seeing the desolate landscape; and a window view of a sparse hill with a lone tiny tree.

Through these Spartan scenes, I tried to capture a certain and emptiness. Empty, desolate, or barren. A wasteland of landscape and ethos. Perhaps, these paintings reflected my upbringing in the rather desolate northern China, under a repressive cultural and political atmosphere, or the zeitgeist of what my current dwelling has become. Forlorn, isolated, and resigned.

Commune, Oil on Canvas 22” x 28”, 2021 — Commune, oil on canvas, 22” x 28”, 2021

Hiatus, oil on canvas, 24x30, 2024 — Hiatus, oil on canvas, 24×30, 2024

Allure, India Ink on Yupo Paoer, 11x14, 2024 — Allure, India ink on Yupo paoer, 11×14, 2024

Waiting, oil on canvas, 22x28, 2021 — Waiting, oil on canvas, 22×28, 2021

A Mysterious “Nocturnal Journey”

Posted on June 19, 2025 by mfsadmin

A palpable sense of mystery pervades this artwork, dominated by the dark, enveloping night and the equally dark, unfathomable water that blends seamlessly with the sky. Amidst this profound darkness, glides a lone boat carrying two enigmatic figures – a man passively slumbers in the back of the vessel, while a woman sits erectly in the front, with steadfast gaze, leaving the viewers to wonder if she’s lost in contemplation or actively steering their course through sheer will. The overall somber mood is remarkably interrupted by their presence and the flickering reflections, against the fathomless water and the deep unknown.

Nocturnal Journey, oil on canvas, 24"x30", 2022 — **Nocturnal Journey**
Oil on Canvas
24” x 30”
Completed in 2022

Hallucinatory oil painting “Disperse”

Posted on August 5, 2023 by mfsadmin

My 2022 oil painting, Disperse, captures a hallucinatory moment of a nighttime landscape — between the silhouettes of two monumental and interlocking trees, a group of tiny figures scurrying by, running away from their familiar ground, their fates, their tormentors or captors. The specificities are intentionally omitted, so as to leave the viewers to interpret freely and to fill in the missing details, though the title does hint at diaspora stories in the headlines of late.

Disperse, oil on canvas, 20″x30″, 2022

This piece will be part of the juried exhibition “Within Sight or From Imagination” at GearBox Gallery, 770 West Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94612 (August 10 – September 9, 2023). Juror: Jeremy Morgan.
Opening Reception: August 12, Sat., 1 to 4 pm | Juror’s talk: September 2, Sat., 2 pm

Languor

Posted on December 15, 2022 by mfsadmin

This 2021 oil painting recorded some “beached” refuges in their arduous journey for a better life. It has been included in the East Bay Artists 2022, published by ArtPush

Uncertain “Prospect”

Posted on January 19, 2022 by mfsadmin

An open, terraced, and desiccated field, dominated by a truss tower of industrial scale, dwarfed by the vault of leaden clouds, served as the backdrop of a small-scaled human drama, which centered on a lone figure looking toward the city silhouette in the distance, as if contemplating his or her future, in the region unknown. All these formed the subject of my landscape painting, Prospect, which suggested some inner turmoil without resorting to gestural embellishments – understated but impactful. I am pleased with the contrast between the vast landscape and the insignificant figure who got lost amid the cold and uninviting surroundings.

Enigmatic “Seclusion”

Posted on December 26, 2021 by mfsadmin

Seclusion is a meditative painting of a young woman and her two phantom images superimposed above the centrally placed figure at the lower half of the canvas. This young woman, head bent, surrounded by dense woods, was in a state of meditation, and solitary despite the two companions, who could be herself in different time frames, evoked by this woman lost in her private thoughts. These three figures, real or imaginative, resembled the traditional grouping of the Three Graces in the western visual presentation canon, therefore, created another layer of mystery to this tableau inside the dark and misty woods.

Seclusion
Oil on Canvas
28” x 22”
Completed in 2021

Compassionate “Surveying”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by mfsadmin

My allegorical painting Surveying portrayed a nightmarish landscape consisting of fluid and unsettled patterns, suggesting disturbed soil or waves, like the aftermath of a fierce battle. A large figure dressed in a similarly patterned white garb, floated above this mystic landscape, surveying the ravage brought upon by whatever malicious agents. The figure’s outstretched arms, along with the melting drips from the white dress, suggested immense sorrow and compassion.

Surveying
Oil on Canvas
28” x 22”
Completed in 2013

Crisp and Somber “Drifting”

Posted on July 8, 2021 by mfsadmin

Drifting is a self-portrait that captures myself sitting on the bow of a small rowboat, which gently rocked in a bay, with a small vegetated island lurking in the back.

The tip of the bow, the outstretched or bent angular legs and arms, and above all, and the figure sitting on top of the boat, jointly or separately formed several intricately nested and well-balanced triangles. Yet, the usual stability associated with such triangular composition was negated somewhat by the tilting boat; one could feel the swaying of the small boat, and the longer one stares at this painting, the more likely one feels the onset of seasickness.

My younger self, eyes cast down, lost in thoughts, doubtful and a bit rueful, manifested the angst of youth, of an era, of a nation. The frostiness of this painting, awash with crisp light and dominated by a distancing pale blue shade, was punctuated only by the wine-red swimming trunk, which provided a small gesture of warmth in the otherwise thorough coolness.

Drifting
30” x 40”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2001

Featured Painting – Diptych “19”

Posted on March 16, 2020 by mfsadmin

Missing making art in a community and the interaction with fellow artists, I decided to participate in a painting workshop, and one of the assignments was a small diptych, with one of them to have more and the other less paint. I did my best to capture the fear and resilience of people under threat from Coronavirus. This diptych is aptly titled “19”.

I hope that this small diptych, double portraits of a mask-wearing man and a woman, alert, vigilant, a tad fearful, yet resolute, titled 19, would give viewers a sense of fellowship, and fortify our resilience.

19, oil on canvas, 14"x11" & 14"x11", 2020 — 19, oil on canvas, 14″x11″ & 14″x11″, 2020

19
14”x11” & 14”x11”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2020

Matthew Felix Sun

— Award-Winning San Francisco Bay Area Fine Artist

Category Archives: Figurative