Dr. Vinci Weng is an artist and professor in fine art and photography. With a rich artistic journey spanning 40 years, his practices include modern Chinese painting, contemporary painting, photography and moving image. He adopts the concepts of painting, photography and cinema that addressing some interesting issues of digital art with possibilities to go beyond the limit of still and moving images. His work explores the relationships between abstraction and surrealism, painting and photography, still and moving image. ‘Seeing, exploring and knowing’ is the principal reference to the context of fictional landscapes in his practice. His work builds on the inner, abstract and surreal landscapes where illusions, fantasies and Eastern aesthetics are reflected. Weng has an excellent track record of creative practice and research output. As an artist and academic, his recent practice-based research into digital-composite photograph has enabled him to participate in numerous exhibitions and receive many awards. In 2021, he received the prestigious ‘Power of Creativity | Art Prize’ from Contemporary Art Curator magazine, which is the highest mark of creative excellence and recognition of outstanding achievement in innovation and creativity. Weng was also one of the featured artists in the Spring-2022 issue of the Woven Tale Press magazine (New York). He was selected for an ‘Artistic Excellence Award’ of CFA Artist of the Year by Circle Foundation for the Arts in France and has been crowned as a 2023 MUSE Photography Awards Platinum Winner within the Fine Art – Photomanipulation category, as well as the 2nd Place Winner (silver award / photomanipulation) of Chromatic Awards 2023. His works have also been invited to showcase for Sovicille Creative Exhibition as part of the Siena Awards Photo Festival 2023 in Italy, and ‘Surreal’ – an international photography exhibition at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography in the UK in 2024. Weng is one of the gallery artists for YellowKorner Art Photography in Paris, France. He is currently working on a new series of digital composite photographs – the project ‘The Joylands’. Weng does not use AI-assisting/generated tools nor stock images, only relying on complex manipulations of his own photographic images captured on locations. His idea, plan, post-production and photographs are all seamlessly connected in order to achieve visual strength of the final result. The working process is painstakingly, and needs to spend several months to produce a large-scale work. Weng’s current exploration of work focuses on unraveling surreal vistas and post-photographic aesthetics, masterfully portrayed in his evocative and painterly compositions.