Between Innocence and Reality
Visual Narratives of Childhood, Care and Resistance
Curated by ArtFlow Studio with curators Hongqian Zhang
Between Innocence and Reality is a duo exhibition presenting the works of Lin Cheng and Jiarui Jiang, two illustrators who employ visual storytelling as both a poetic language and a critical framework. Grounded in children’s imagery while extending into socially engaged narratives, the exhibition explores how themes of childhood, care, and vulnerability intersect with memory, lived experience, and subtle forms of resistance.
Working across illustration, artist’s books, mixed media, and narrative-driven projects, both artists examine how softness, imagination, and humour can coexist with emotional intensity and urgency. Rather than positioning childhood as a state of pure innocence, the exhibition understands it as a perceptual space—one in which fear, care, resilience, and social awareness gradually emerge.
Artist List
Lin Cheng:
Lin Cheng’s practice moves between picture books, illustration, and cross-media storytelling, often addressing themes of memory, emotional survival, and gendered experience. Her works draw on personal narratives and metaphor to reflect on domestic space, silence, and vulnerability, transforming intimate experiences into visual resistance through poetic imagery.
Jiarui Jiang
In contrast, Jiarui Jiang focuses on children’s picture books and hand-painted mixed media illustration, celebrating nature, humour, and everyday wonder. Her vibrant use of colour and material experimentation creates playful yet reflective narratives, where curiosity and imagination become ways of understanding the world.
Volunteer：Wenxi Yu, Jingxiang Wang, Yunqian Lv, Xiangyu Zhang
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to our media partner JustArt Collective Newspaper for their generous support and coverage of this exhibition, and heartfelt thanks to Jenny Ping Lam Lin for her professional contribution to the exhibition’s communication and promotion.
