Ma Pinyi is a young and talented independent artist who specializes in Zisha art. He was born in Dingshan, Yixing in 1994. He also won a Tai Chi championship in Jiangsu Province. In 2013, he began his study of traditional Zisha crafting under the guidance of grand masters Wang Xiaolong and Gao Lijun, they both hold a high regard for Zisha pottery and had placed a lot of expectations on him as one of their most promising students. Ma Pinyi is greatly influenced by Western art as well. With his artistic background and knowledge of both East and West, he constantly explores the possibilities of Zisha art and expresses his artistic concepts through it. Some of his notable works include the “Melt” series and “The Seven Sages” series.
"I have been exploring my own artistic language by integrating modern artistic ideas into the traditional Zisha teapot making.
I have been experimenting with Zisha art and constantly moving back and forth between the contemporary and traditional styles.
I have been pondering the connection between personality, creativity, and interestingness in artistic creation. I believe that any art that breaks out of a fixed format can take a big leap forward. "
-Ma Pin Yi
Ma Pinyi's portfolio
In 2019, he participated in the "Qingyi Sand Heart - Zisha New Youth Invitational Exhibition" and his work “Da Bin Ti Liang" was collected by the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Center.
Participated in the Su Zuo Cultural and Creative Summit and the Yangtze River Delta Sister Cities Young Craftsmen Development Conference in 2019
Won the gold medal in the 11th Yibo Cup Arts and Crafts Grand Prix in 2020
In 2021, he participated in the "New Youth, Heart to the Party - Zisha Theme Exhibition"
In 2021, he was awarded the "Youth - Originality 100" model for emerging youth groups in Jiangsu Province and was selected as the award of "Young Artist" of Jiang Su
In 2022, he participated in the "Zisha New Youth” exhibition and the second "Su Yun Liufang-Youth Charity Exhibition and Competition"
He obtain the professional title of “National Art and Crafts Artist” in 2022.
He won the bronze medal in the 13th Yibo Cup Fine Arts and Crafts Grand Prix, in 2022
"Ten Years, Still the Origin: Ma Pinyi Works Exhibition" was held at the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Center in 2023
In 2023, he participated in "Praise to the New Era - Zisha New Youth 2023 Invitational Exhibition".
Ma Pinyi’s perspective on Zisha, as viewed by He Wei Ping
Member of the Chinese Literary Critics Association
Member of the Chinese Artists Association.
Strictly speaking, artists are those who are able to handle techniques with ease, as they are experts in perceiving changes in perception.
- Marshall McLuhan
生长 Growth
During the Song Dynasty, Hong Mai wrote anecdotes about strange things. In his book "夷坚三志 Yijiansanzhi", he tells the story of Ruan Shiliu, a ceramic artist who was known for being "smart in nature and superior to others in every production standard". Ruan Shiliu was never afraid of snakes and tigers when he went out climbing mountains and crossing water and forests, and he never carried any tools with him. The secret to his outstanding pottery-making technology and superb martial arts skills was his identity as the servant of Maitreya. In plain folk anecdotes, Ruan Shiliu is known as a communicator of the "secret" skills of ceramic art. However, from an art history perspective, superb skills are often the result of hidden special forces or opportunities that seem to have nothing to do with art.
By the age of 20, Ma Pinyi was already a Zisha crafter and a martial arts expert. He had won the “First Prize of Chen Style Taijiquan in the 4th International Martial Art Elite Invitation Tournament” and was the “Tai Chi Champion of Jiangsu Province.” I will take my time to tell you more about his crafting skills.
Chen-style Tai Chi, which is Ma Pinyi’s expertise, originated in the late Ming Dynasty. This was a time when many famous Zisha masters appeared in China. The style was influenced by Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which all collided and interacted during this era. The changes in dynasties and the renewal of techniques created a new social atmosphere, giving birth to many new things. As a native of Yixing, Ma Pinyi’s inheritance of Zisha crafts makes sense, but his admiration for Martial Arts originating in the Central Plains is unexpected. This combination of the movement and the static, the south and the north, and the handiness and the clumsiness, has allowed Ma Pinyi to explore these two aspects, leading to his accumulation of humanistic knowledge and vision.
Ma Pinyi was instructed and guided by the grand masters Wang Xiaolong and Gao Lijun to study the traditional crafting skills of Zisha teapot crafting, making tools with various materials, and other aspects of the traditional Zisha art. Who are incredibly respected for Zisha. Who are also the teacher of the Grand Master 季益顺 Ji Yi Shun. However, he is not content with just being a traditional "Zisha master" in the future. He repeatedly tries to integrate modern art thought into Zisha pot making, breaking boundaries, and breaking its century-old craft attribute to become part of the modern art evolution.
Apart from learning about traditional culture, Ma Pinyi is actively studying Western humanities and art cultures. He was greatly inspired by Picasso's words, "The Greeks, the Romans, and the people of Renaissance all drew according to the rules, but from Van Gogh on, everyone must be his own sun." This led him to continuously explore and question "his own sun" in teapot making, indirectly prompting him to pay more attention to modern art and consider personality and the relationship between interest and artistic creation.
His work "Melt" goes beyond the traditional techniques and shape of the Zisha pot with the thinking of "without destruction, there can be no construction," which is a practical response to this thinking.
Ma Pinyi’s Wu Jing Handle Teapot and Dabin Handle Teapot are excellent examples of his expertise in traditional Zisha teapot crafting. He drew inspiration from the Ming Dynasty’s “Paintings of Tea Boiling” by Wang Wen and the Handle Teapot Jiajing period, which was discovered in Majiashan and is now part of the Nanjing Museum’s collection. Ma Pinyi paid tribute to the ancients by creating a simple yet elegant style that remains faithful to the classic shape.
The teapot “Inheritance” showcases the changes in the design and structure of the Zisha pot, representing the spirit of bamboo that symbolizes literati. It features the “three-section” bamboo joints twisted into various parts of the teapot body, reflecting the concept of “abdication” in Chinese art, which is aligned with the Buddhism philosophy of “Jinsha Temple Monk”. The teapot’s concave and convex body, along with the hidden or apparent changes in the handle, lid, and spout, depict the idea of “abdication”.
The Seven Sages • Liu Ling also used bamboo as a theme, stretching the shape of the bamboo joints obliquely, adding a handle and a spout at the protruding part of the teapot body, retracting the force at the recessed part to strengthen the Taoist position’s “contention.” The work also reflects Liu Ling’s Wei-Jin demeanor of “Wine is the thing always and uppermost in his mind, what else does he care for?” by presenting potential ideational forms between drunkness and the Taichi moves. The work skillfully compares the simple and honest tipsy feeling with the elegant tea ware, creating a thick sculptural taste in a gentle form.
Mencius once said, “There is an art to contemplating water. It is necessary to observe it as it foams in waves.” Ma Pinyi’s Zisha teapots have a visual representation of “Zen in Cloud and Water” and an inner quality of “celestial beings”. While the former is easy to see, the latter requires comprehension. In the late 20th century, the renowned Japanese designer, Ikko Tanaka, predicted that one of the design missions of the 21st century was to “retrieve the aesthetics of non-smooth, shiny objects” (Ikko Tanaka’s Awakening of Design). If you agree with this, you may want to consider using Zisha material to explore the subject of this century, and Ma Pinyi’s teapots may serve as a prime example.
