Samsung Art Store Features Sun Yitian's 'Ken' in Art Basel Collection

"I feel attached to these fleeting things made on assembly lines," Sun told Samsung. "They were my companions in childhood, and they also carry the imprint of the time we live in." Her work has evolved to examine how mass-produced objects carry emotional weight despite - or because of - their industrial origins.

The digital presentation creates an interesting tension for an artist who emphasizes painting's physical presence. "What matters to me is the painting's physical presence," Sun noted. "That is the key difference between a painting and an image of a painting on a screen: the painting exists physically as a real, tangible object."

But she sees value in the Samsung partnership's ability to bring art into everyday spaces. "When my work is shown in a more private and intimate setting through a digital screen, it can take on a different feeling from the original painting," she said. The physical "Ken" is currently on view at the Long Museum in Shanghai, while the digital version lives on Samsung displays globally.

Sun's precise yet ambiguous style has made her one of the most watched voices in contemporary painting. She developed her technique through years of practice that began copying Shogo Hirata's fairy tale books and obsessively drawing Sailor Moon characters as a child. One kindergarten memory stands out: cutting slits into a drawn princess dress and holding it to sunlight, making it appear to glow for delighted classmates.

"I think that may have been the moment I realized how interesting drawing could be - and that I wanted to keep doing it," Sun recalled.

Her approach to painterliness is deliberately restrained. "I do not want my brushwork to be too expressive or too obvious," she explained. "I prefer to let it emerge quietly, in hidden and subtle places." That precision creates space for the emotional ambiguity that defines her work - objects rendered with near-photographic clarity that somehow feel unsettling.

For Samsung, the Art Store represents a growing ecosystem beyond hardware sales. The subscription service transforms premium TVs into rotating galleries, potentially justifying higher price points for models like The Frame that double as wall art when not actively displaying content. The Art Basel partnership lends cultural credibility while filling the platform with recognizable contemporary work.

Sun remains pragmatic about technology's role in her practice. "As a painter, I know painting is a very old medium," she said. "But as a younger artist, I am open to trying new languages and new tools." Those tools don't necessarily appear directly in her paintings - instead, they push her to reflect on what painting means right now.

As for her hopes for the Samsung collaboration? "I just hope my friends turn on their Samsung TV, see my giant 'Ken' and get a little surprise," Sun said.

Samsung's Art Store collaboration with Sun Yitian highlights how consumer electronics companies are positioning premium displays as cultural platforms, not just entertainment hardware. By partnering with Art Basel and offering subscription access to thousands of curated artworks, Samsung creates differentiation in a crowded TV market while giving contemporary artists new distribution channels. Whether digital reproductions on 4K screens can capture the emotional complexity Sun builds into her physical paintings remains an open question - but for now, viewers can compare for themselves, with the original "Ken" still hanging at Shanghai's Long Museum.