Lightning in the Hills: Xiao Feng Art Museum Emerges as Hangzhou’s New Cultural Beacon

A jagged silhouette cuts through the mist-cloaked hills near Hupao Spring—the newly unveiled Xiao Feng Art Museum. Opened in April 2025, this architectural marvel doesn’t just display art; it embodies it. Housing nearly 500 works from Xiao Feng and his wife Song Ren, the museum maps eight decades of China’s turbulent history through two revolutionary brushes. Xiao Feng was president of the China Academy of Art back when administrators were still practicing artists, not just paper-pushing bureaucrats. The man could actually paint—and paint well. His artistic credentials were far stronger than what you’d find among today’s university presidents.

The winding bridge-like museum snakes organically through the forest, camouflaged by traditional dark grey tiles rather than imposing a monumental presence. The building centers around an introverted scholar’s garden, with visitors entering through an interior courtyard via a building bridge. The circular tour alternates between narrow passages and expansive volumes, using ramps to create multifaceted spatial experiences across different levels, while protruding boxes with panorama windows connect interior spaces to both courtyard and landscape views. Rather than typical museum grandeur, this hidden structure prioritizes sensory discovery—visitors cannot grasp it entirely but must move through winding paths to uncover spaces and artworks progressively.

Xiao Feng Actually Had Serious Artistic Chops
Born in 1932 in Yangzhou, Xiao Feng joined anti-Japanese propaganda teams when he was eleven. Can you imagine an eleven-year-old today handling that kind of responsibility? After 1949, he studied at what would eventually become the China Academy of Art. Here’s where it gets interesting – he started out as a mediocre student. Not the kind of origin story you usually hear about famous artists. But he kept working, got better, and eventually earned one of the few spots to study oil painting at Saint Petersburg Repin Academy of Arts. His classmates included Quan Shanshi, Lin Gang, and Zhou Zheng – names that still matter in Chinese art circles today.

That’s how it worked back then. The best students studied together, pushed each other, and many became significant artists later. Quan Shanshi Art Centre is just as impressive as this new Xiao Feng Museum, which tells you something about the calibre of people in that program.

Bridging East and West: A Legacy in Art and Education
During his studies in Russia, Xiao Feng completed a large body of plein-air work in the countryside, gradually developing his own distinct artistic style. His professors praised his oil paintings that seamlessly blended Western techniques with the spirit of traditional Chinese ink painting. In 1960, he graduated with honours from the Repin Academy of Arts and was awarded the formal title of “Artist.” That same year, he returned to China and began teaching in the Oil Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now known as the China Academy of Art).

Xiao Feng made significant contributions in both the academic and political spheres. After experiencing political oppression in his early career, he created impactful works such as Daqing Oilfield Connects the World, History Must Not Repeat Itself, and Battle on Mount Luoxiao. It was also under his leadership that the academy secured approval from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to allocate 120 mu of land for a new campus branch on the south bank of the Qiantang River.

In 1989, the academy signed a sister school agreement with Gifu Women’s University in Japan, opening a new chapter in international academic exchange. In 1993, Xiao Feng personally witnessed the historic moment when the institution officially changed its name from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts to the China Academy of Art.