ABOUT — THE ARTIST
Gao Xinuo高西诺
Calligraphy · Gongbi painting · Woodcut
Eighteen, still learning. I write seal and clerical script, paint small gongbi fans, and cut black-and-white woodblocks — three ways of teaching a hand to be patient.
Browse the gallery — 61 moments beyond the works
- Born
- 2008 · China
- Based in
- Beijing, China
- School
- Beijing 21st Century School
- Media
- Ink · silk · paper · woodblock · marker · camera
- Roles
- Vice President, Student Union presidium · President, Calligraphy Club
BIO
In her own words
STUDIO NOTES · 2024 —— 2026
I'm Gao Xinuo, a high-school student in Beijing, currently serving on the Student Council presidium. I have been named a "May 1st" Model Student, an Outstanding Middle-School Student and an Outstanding Student Cadre. People describe me as warm and outgoing — the one signing up for every arts event, happy to put my calligraphy on show, and just as interested in what happens behind the camera: I love photography and video editing, I write, and I still approach anything new with the same curiosity.
I read a lot — everything I can get my hands on — and I keep my grades up. Classmates know me as someone who will help before being asked, and teachers as someone they can hand things to. Sport is the other half of me: badminton, basketball, volleyball, and — the two that take the most nerve — horseback riding and skating. All of it makes me a more complete person, and all of it teaches the same lesson the brush does: show up, repeat, improve.
I'm president of the school calligraphy club. I have entered calligraphy competitions across Beijing many times and brought home my share of awards. Inside the club, though, I care just as much about the other job: helping members work together, so that a piece comes out better than any one of us could have made it alone.
I care about public service. In "HOPE Brings You Hope", a community program, I helped children with autism open up — leading everyone through handicrafts until the artworks were finished together. For the Student Council I draft proposals, plan events and take volunteer shifts; ordinary, everyday work, and I am glad to do it well. I helped organize the Lawn Music Festival, donated one of my works to a "One-Yuan Charity" sale, performed at the "Longxing Dada" New Year calligraphy exhibition, and every Spring Festival I write 福 characters and couplets for the elderly in my neighborhood.
In ninth grade I made a series of thirty-six illustrated study sheets walking through the geography of China — my longest project in ink and marker so far.
“Curious about everything, serious with the brush.”
— Gao Xinuo · Beijing
Traces2024 — 2026
What happened, in order. Nothing dramatic — mostly a table, a lamp, and paper.
Awards2020 — 2024
Honors and selections, newest first.
HOPEVOLUNTEER · SINCE AGE SEVEN
My longest project has nothing to do with ink.
When I was seven, my parents took me to HOPE — a hippotherapy centre for children with special needs. I never really left. Week after week for more than half my life now, I work as a side-walker: walking beside a child on horseback, close enough to catch them, far enough to let them try.
On event days I switch roles — behind the camera, photographing sessions and the little breakthroughs that happen in them; at charity sales and volunteer fairs I run the craft table, helping the kids start artworks and making sure every piece gets finished together. In 2024 our volunteer team was named an Outstanding Volunteer Service Team of Shunyi District.
Horses taught me a patience that calligraphy never could: there is no model to copy and no correct answer — you just show up, every week, until a child who would not look at you at first saves you a smile.
Student UnionMEMBER → DIRECTOR → VICE PRESIDENT
Three years, three desks.
I joined the Student Union as a rank-and-file member of the Social Practice Department, grew into its director, and now serve as vice president of the presidium — each desk teaching a different half of the same job.
As vice president I coordinate the departments: matching plans to people, then following every event from first sketch to final debrief — the spring garden party, the sports meet, the council elections, the New Year’s Eve gala, the flea market. I listen to what classmates want, carry it to the teachers, and carry the answers back: the link between the two sides.
It is ordinary work, done carefully — and it taught me that service is not a title you are given but a habit you learn by doing it.
DOCUMENTARY
“Never Stop”BEHIND THE SCENES
Made for our grade documentary festival — and it outgrew the assignment.
“Never Stop” started as an entry for our grade-level documentary film festival. With my two teammates I went through the whole pipeline for the first time — writing the script, running the field interviews, cutting the late-night edits — and learned how much of filmmaking is trust: in your crew, and in the people in front of the lens.
Most of the people we filmed are the autistic children and their families at HOPE, the same place I have volunteered at since I was seven. Putting the film together taught me how media can carry the stories I want people to actually see — and teamwork is a skill, the same way a brush hand is.
DIRECTORS Gao Xinuo · LelaiINTERVIEWS Gao XinuoEDITING LelaiVOICE Yang Qing
ONE MORE VIDEO
SING OUT THE HEART唱出心声
A video shared on Douyin — tap the card to watch it there. Sound on.
ONE MORE THING
Above all — I am someone who genuinely, stubbornly, loves life.
The brush, the horses, the camera, the volleyball court, the duck, the bear, the hanfu at the night fair — they all point the same way: I like being here, and I like showing people what I see. Everything on this site is just that — a life, kept on paper.
CONTACT
Say hello —
I answer everything.
Calls and messages, any day.
Email gxn13146749531@126.comFor school projects, commissions or a longer note.
Gao Xinuo 高西诺
Calligraphy · Painting · Printmaking