Nini Sum is an artist based in Berlin and Shanghai. She works across screen printing, collage, and sculpture, exploring the relationship between material, image, nature, and contemporary life.
She grew up in Nanjing - a Chinese city where forest and urban life intertwine, and where a sense of coexistence between people and nature shaped her early artistic sensibility. Trees, tree rings, and the Five Elements appear in her work not only as visual textures, but also as carriers of ideas around time, growth, and cycles. She incorporates the Eastern philosophical understanding of time and the way of seeing found in traditional Chinese landscape painting into a contemporary visual language, seeking a balance between nature, time, and human perception. This forms a more spiritual core within her artistic practice.
In 2010, she founded IdleBeats in Shanghai, China's first independent screen printing studio, which she has operated for more than a decade. There, through layering colors, building surfaces, and working with the resistance and grain of physical materials, she gradually developed her technical language and a deep understanding of the meaning of making by hand.
Her Urban Landscape collage series (2019–2023) brings together imagery from traditional Chinese landscape painting with contemporary urban fragments, exploring the dissolution of boundaries between past and present, nature and city. ZERO (2025), a series of screen-printed wooden wall works, further transforms landscape and tree rings from surface into form. Shēngshēng, her ongoing sculpture series, takes this exploration into three dimensions: natural elements and landscape imagery become freestanding sculptural forms, each piece cut, printed, and constructed entirely by hand.
Alongside her independent artistic practice, Nini has also collaborated with international brands including The Macallan, adidas, Adobe, and Uniqlo, through artist collaborations, commissioned works, and other creative projects, extending her visual language into broader cultural contexts.
Her work has been exhibited internationally across China, Germany, the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Finland, and Singapore, and was included in Poly Auction Beijing in 2021.
Solo Exhibitions
2023 Space Walk - Artist-in-Residence Solo Exhibition, Kunstraum des Konfuzius-instituts, Nürnberg, Germany
2012 See·Saw - Solo Exhibition, Identity Art Gallery, Hong Kong
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2020–2021 Worlds On Paper, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
2020 Untitled and Unlimited, Times Museum, Poly Art Center, Beijing, China
2019–2020 China Europe Illustrations and Images Exhibition, Helsinki, Finland
2019 The Drawing Hand, Danysz Gallery, Shanghai, China
2019 Anime, Kult Gallery, Singapore
2018 Tale Of Two Cities #4, The Space Gallery, Shanghai, China
2017 Screen Punch, Con Artist Gallery, New York, USA
2017 Tale Of Two Cities #3, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
2017 Torino Graphic Days, Turin, Italy
2017 MAPS, Newsagency Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2017 PSA 5th Anniversary Exhibition, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2016 Tale Of Two Cities #2, PlayClass, Shanghai, China
2016 Facing the Climate, The Swedish Institute & Consulate General of Sweden, Shanghai, China
2015 No Man's Art Pop Up Gallery, Oslo, Norway
2015 Tale Of Two Cities #1, UNDEFINE M50, Shanghai, China
2014 Chinese Spring #2, Stieglitz19 Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2014 Art Print Asia, Newsagency Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2014 Shanghai Dangdai, No Man's Art Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2013 Druck Berlin, UrbanSpree, Berlin, Germany
2013 Dualities 2: The State of Innocence, Identity Art Gallery, Hong Kong
2013 No Man's Art Pop Up Gallery Shanghai, Wharf 1846, Shanghai, China
2012 Spot Light - China Youth Art Exhibition, Bund 18 Gallery, Shanghai, China
Auction
2021 Barbershop (First Edition), Poly Auction, Beijing, China
Press (Selected)
BBC, CNN, Shanghai Daily, Adobe Creative Leaders, i-D, Creators Project (Vice), Elle, People of Print, RADII, Design 360, That's Shanghai
Nini Sum 是一位常驻柏林与上海的艺术家，创作横跨丝网印刷、拼贴与雕塑，探索材料、图像、自然与当代生活之间的关系。
她成长于南京 - 一座森林与城市交织的中国城市，人与自然共生的状态塑造了她早期的创作感知。树木、年轮与五行元素在她的作品中不仅作为视觉纹理出现，也承载着对时间、生长与循环的思考。她将东方哲学中的时间观与中国山水的观看方式融入当代视觉语言，在自然、时间与人的感知之间寻找平衡，也由此形成了其艺术实践中更具精神性的内核。
2010年，她在上海创立爱豆笔此IdleBeats，中国第一家独立丝网印刷工作室，运营十余年至今。在那里，她通过层层叠加颜色、构筑表面，以及与实体材料的阻力和纹理共处，逐渐形成了自己的技术语言，也建立了对“手工创作”意义的深厚理解。
她的拼贴系列《城市山水》（Urban Landscape，2019–2023）将中国传统山水画意象与当代城市碎片并置，探索过去与现在、自然与城市之间边界的消融。2025年的《ZERO》系列以丝网印刷木质墙面作品为核心，将山水与年轮从表面进一步转化为形体。《生生》（Shēngshēng）这一持续发展的雕塑系列则将这一探索推进至三维空间：自然元素和山水采样进入独立的立体形态，每件作品均由艺术家亲手切割、印刷与搭建完成。
除个人艺术实践外，Nini 也曾与 The Macallan、adidas、Adobe 及优衣库（Uniqlo） 等国际品牌展开艺术家联名和特邀创作等合作，将其视觉语言延伸至更广泛的文化语境。
她的作品曾在中国、德国、美国、比利时、荷兰、澳大利亚、挪威、芬兰及新加坡等地展出，并于2021年入选北京保利拍卖。
个展
• 2023 / Space Walk - 艺术家驻留项目及个人展览 / Kunstraum des Konfuzius-instituts, / 德国 纽伦堡
• 2012 / SEE·SAW - Nini Sum 个人展览 / Identity Art Gallery / 香港
群展(部分)
• 2020-2021 / 一纸一境 / Art Labor 画廊 / 中国 上海
• 2020 / 未名与无限 / 时间博物馆 保利艺术中心 / 中国 北京
• 2020 / Full Moon Festival群展 / 候鸟空间 / 德国 柏林
• 2019-2020 / 中欧插图与影像展 / 芬兰 赫尔辛基
• 2019 / 绘之手 / 唐妮诗画廊 / 中国 上海
• 2019 / Anime / Kult画廊 / 新加坡
• 2019 / 第二届中欧插图与影像展 / 中国 上海
• 2018 / 双城记 #4 / The Space画廊 / 中国 上海
• 2017 / Screen Punch / Con Artist画廊 / 美国 纽约
• 2017 / 双城记 #3 / Art Labor画廊 / 中国 上海
• 2017 / 都灵设计节 / 意大利 都灵
• 2017 / 爱豆笔此作品展 / Serigraffeur 画廊 / 德国 柏林
• 2017 / MAPS / Newsagency画廊 / 澳大利亚 悉尼
• 2017 / PSA五周年群展 / 上海当代艺术博物馆 / 中国 上海
• 2016 / 双城记 #2 / PlayClass / 中国 上海
• 2016 / Facing the Climate / 瑞典驻上海总领事馆 / 中国 上海
• 2015 / No Man’s Art Pop Up Gallery / 挪威 奥斯陆
• 2015 / 双城记 #1 / UNDEFINE M50 / 中国 上海
• 2014 / Chinese Spring #2 / Stieglitz19 Gallery / 比利时 安特卫普
• 2014 / Art Print Asia / Newsagency Gallery / 澳大利亚 悉尼
• 2014 / 上海当代 / No Man’s Art Gallery / 荷兰 阿姆斯特丹
• 2013 / Druck Berlin / UrbanSpree / 德国 柏林
• 2013 / Dualities 2: The State of Innocence / Identity Art Gallery / 香港
• 2013 / No Man’s Art Pop Up Gallery Shanghai / Wharf 1846 / 中国 上海
• 2012 / 亮点 - 中国青年艺术家群展 / Bund 18 Gallery / 中国 上海
• 2010 40 Under 40 / 世博会 / 中国 上海
• 2009 <Cut&Paste>2D全球总决赛 代表中国参赛/ 美国 纽约
• 2009 <Cut&Paste> 艺术与设计巡回赛 2D中国赛区 冠军 / 中国 上海
拍卖
• 2021 保利拍卖 《熊猫理发店》第一版
出版和发表 (部分)
• 《Facing the climate》The Swedish Institute (SI) 及 瑞典驻国领事馆 2016
• 《亚洲创意人》 パイインターナショナル(PIE International) 日本 2013•
• 《中国插画人手稿集》上海人民美术出版社 中国 上海 2012