By Ye Zuyu and Tang Huirun
An AI interactive digital artwork, Sublimation: Night-shining White, drew wide attention as it made its debut at the Digital Art Special Exhibition of the 10th Beijing International Art BiennaleChina 2025. The piece was produced by Professor Wang Lei’s team from the School of Animation and Digital Art at Communication University of China (CUC).
Scene from the 10th Beijing International Art Biennale China 2025.
The biennale, themed "Symbiosis",is jointly organized by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Publicity Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the China Artists Association. Since opening on December 29, 2025. it has drawn considerable acclaim, serving as a high level platform for global cultural exchange.
Sublimation: Night-shining White, with its cutting edge technological exploration, profound cultural themes, and unique expressive form, has attracted nearly 10,000 visitors and drawn coverage from authoritative media including CCTV News, Xinhua News Agency, and Beijing Daily. The workshowcases Chinese universities’ pioneering role in digital cultural innovation.
An Endless Painting: A Digital Symphony of Han Gan’s Steed and the Spirit of a Golden Age
Sublimation: Night-shining White is an immersive digital art installation combining CG animation and real time AI interactive imaging. Inspired by Night Shining White,a masterpiece by Tang Dynasty painter Han Gan, the work captures the dynamic spirit of horses to reinterpret the traditional Chinese aesthetic concept of "vivid vitality".
To build this piece, a curated collection of classical Chinese paintings from various dynasties and schools were used as training materials for an exclusive interactive AI generation model, The result is a dynamic system that integrates traditional Chinese war drums, classical music, and real time intelligent visuals. When visitors strike the drums, new digital ink wash paintings are instantly generated, creating an ever evolving artwork that embodies the dialogue between traditional art and modern digital technology.
Interactive generation scene of the workSublimation: Night-Shining White.
Deep Practice: AI Empowers the Renewal of Chinese Painting
Sublimation: Night-Shining White is part of the Sublimationseries developed by CUC’s DigiLab. Grounded in the national cultural project A Complete Collection of Paintings of Chinese Dynasties, the series comprises 15 independent works that explore traditional Chinese aesthetics of time, rhythm, and philosophy through CG animation, AI generation, and installation art.
Promotional image for theSublimation series.
Several works from the series have been exhibited internationally. The Sublime: Landscape Vitality was featured at the inaugural Hong Kong AI Art Festival in December 2025, receiving high praise from both the public and the media.
Huo Qigong, Member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, visits Sublimation: Landscape Vitality at the Hong Kong AI Art Festival.
Exhibition scene of Sublimation: Night Banquet at the Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg, Germany.
Sublimation: Night Banquet,inspired bythe 10th-century masterpieceThe Night Banquetof Han Xizai, was exhibited atMuseum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg, Germany. The work uses 3D animation to amplify and reinterpret the subtlety and restraint of traditional Chinese painting, offering a contemporary and dynamically humorous take on the classic.
3D animation reinterprets The Night Banquet of Han Xizai.
AI+ Art Platform Support: A New Chapter of Practice-Based Education
Guided by CUC’s "Artificial Intelligence Action Plan", the DigiLabat the School of Animation and Digital Art is dedicated to empowering animation and digital art creation through original digital intelligence technologies. The lab serves as a high-level innovation platform that brings together content research, technological innovation, and application promotion.Through this integration, it advances the contemporary expression of traditional Chinese culture by merging art with technology.
Editor: Li Shuxuan, Fang Yiran
Managing Editor: Tang Huirun
Editor-in-chief: Yu Ran, Yang Zhongtian
