SailUp Arts just wrapped up four days at ArtExpo New York 2026 (April 9–12, Pier 36, Manhattan). Our booth featured a broad selection of Chinese ink paintings and calligraphy, spanning landscape, bird-and-flower, and figure painting. We were glad to meet so many collectors, fellow artists, and first-time viewers of ink art over the course of the fair.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by, asked questions, and took the time to look closely. Below is a selection of the artists and works we exhibited.
Mo Lijia
Abstract & Freehand Landscapes
Mo Lijia's ink work moves between semi-abstract composition and intimate freehand landscape. His paintings often begin with dense, layered washes of ink, with mountains emerging as atmospheric presences rather than defined outlines. Passages of dry brush sit next to saturated pools of ink, producing landscapes that feel both ancient and restless.
At the fair, several collectors noted how these paintings change with viewing distance: monumental from across the aisle, textured and intimate up close.
Landscape, 2019. Ink on paper
Landscape, 2019. Ink on paper
Landscape, 2018. Ink on paper
Landscape, 2018. Ink on paper
Yu Yuebo
Classical Ink Landscapes
Yu Yuebo's landscapes belong to the classical Chinese tradition, drawing specifically on the lineage of Wang Wei, the Tang dynasty poet-painter who treated landscape as a state of mind rather than scenery. Working in ink on paper card, Yu Yuebo builds compositions of layered mountains, pine forests, and mist with patience and structural clarity.
White Clouds Among the Pines drew particular attention at the booth. Visitors noted how the interplay of empty space and detailed ink work produced a sense of depth that felt almost architectural. Wangchuan Painting: Zhuliguan, a reference to Wang Wei's famous scroll, carries that dialogue across centuries.
White Clouds Among the Pines (松间白云), 2024. Ink on paper card
Wangchuan Painting: Zhuliguan (辋川图·竹里馆), 2024. Ink on paper card
Gao Ke
Meticulous Bird-and-Flower Painting
Gao Ke works in the gongbi tradition: meticulous, fine-line brushwork built up through dozens of transparent color layers. The results are luminous. Petals seem to hold light; feathers are rendered with near-tactile precision. What keeps the work from being merely technical is compositional restraint. Each painting contains only what it needs.
At ArtExpo, these works consistently stopped visitors mid-step. The level of detail invited people to lean in, and the conversations that followed often turned to process: how long a single painting takes, how layered washes produce that particular glow, and how gongbi relates to Western traditions of botanical illustration.
Crabapple in Spring, 2023. Ink and color on paper card
Hydrangea Flowers, 2023. Ink and color on paper card
Dai Mu
Bird-and-Flower Painting
Dai Mu's flower paintings carry a modern sensibility within a traditional framework. Peonies, blossoms, and seasonal branches are painted with visible confidence: bold strokes that know when to stop. Color is applied selectively, just enough to suggest warmth or season, while ink does the structural work. The compositions breathe.
Visitors at the fair responded to the directness of these paintings. Compared to the patience of gongbi, Dai Mu's freehand approach communicates something closer to presence: the sense that the artist is recording what he sees right now, with full attention and economy of gesture.
Peony (牡丹), 2023. Ink and color on silk card
Flowers, 2020. Ink and color on paper card
Wang Chunjiang
New Literati Painting
Wang Chunjiang's paintings are warm, philosophical, and quietly humorous. His figures (scholars, hermits, travelers) sit at ease in simplified landscapes, often accompanied by a line of calligraphy that works somewhere between caption and poem. The style draws on the literati tradition of painting as personal expression, but Wang Chunjiang brings to it a lightness that feels genuinely contemporary.
At the booth, these works sparked a different kind of conversation. The landscapes and flower paintings invited contemplation; Wang Chunjiang's pieces invited smiles, and then deeper reflection on what it means to live simply and find contentment in small things.
Spring Returns (又是一年春来到), 2023. Ink and color on paper
Peaceful Harmony (随和), 2023. Ink and color on paper
Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at ArtExpo New York 2026. Whether you saw these works in person or are discovering them here for the first time, we hope they resonate.
If any of the exhibited pieces interest you, feel free to reach out.