Wang Mansheng. | © 2018 Wang Mansheng. Image courtesy of the artist.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
On May 17, 2025, Wang Mansheng: Without Us opened at The Huntington’s Studio for Lodging the Mind (寓意齋), a meditative space nestled within the Chinese Garden. The immersive installation features 22 hand-painted raw silk panels suspended from the ceiling, forming a luminous landscape of trees, rocks, water, and symbolic creatures. As visitors move through the space, their silhouettes intertwine with the translucent panels, highlighting the interconnectedness of all living beings. The exhibition, on view through August 4, 2025, invites contemplation on humanity’s relationship with nature.
In a recent interview with Andrew Shewell and Ting Liu, visitor engagement associates in the Education department, Wang reflected on his lifelong relationship with brush and ink, which began during childhood despite growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. Practicing calligraphy from the age of six or seven opened Wang’s door to Chinese classical literature and to a way of thinking through art. For Wang, the brushwork is not merely technical—it is expressive, rhythmic, and deeply tied to the materiality of nature. He uses over 30 types of brushes in his large-scale silk paintings, including handmade reed brushes, which produce organic, imperfect, and expressive marks. These brushes, along with his hand-ground walnut inks, embody the spirit of craftsmanship and technical innovation in his practice.
Wang Mansheng’s collection of brushes, including a handmade brush created using reed flowers from the Hudson River. Photo by Andrew Shewell. © The Huntington.
Wang also discussed the meaning behind the exhibition’s title. Without Us poses a quiet but powerful question: what would nature look like without humans? He acknowledges the beauty of human culture—such as the ancient science of silk-making, honored in the mulberry trees and silkworms depicted in the work—but he also expresses concern over the ecological impact of modern civilization. From the sky, he says, cities appear vast and overwhelming, making the untouched natural world seem fragile and precious. Standing in The Huntington’s Chinese Garden, surrounded by diverse species and cultivated landscapes, Wang described it as “heaven on Earth”—an ideal space for contemplating humanity’s role in preserving the planet.
To learn more about the story of Without Us, click here.
