Ruby Xu is a Chinese artist currently based in Toronto and studying Drawing & Painting at OCAD University. Her practice spans painting, illustration, and mixed media, exploring themes of cultural identity, memory, and transformation. Drawing from her experiences as an international student, she investigates how heritage, place, and perception shape an evolving sense of self. Through symbolic imagery, expressive colour, and abstraction, her work invites viewers to reflect on the relationship between memory, identity, and change.
Abstract Self-Portrait
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in, 2026
This work explores identity through the symbolic form of a Chinese opera headdress, inspired by my grandmother’s love of Chinese opera. Although my own understanding of this tradition is less extensive than hers, its visual and cultural significance has remained an important part of my identity.
As an international student living between cultures, I often reflect on how inherited memories and traditions continue to shape who I am. Rather than creating a conventional self-portrait, I chose to represent myself through an object that carries personal and cultural meaning. The headdress functions as a vessel for memory, inheritance, and cultural continuity, while the surrounding abstract forms suggest different versions of the self across time. By bringing together past, present, and future within a non-linear visual space, the work reflects an ongoing process of becoming.
Drift II
Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in, 2026
"Drift II" was based on a photograph I took while walking through Sunnybrook Park - my favourite park in Toronto. It explores the relationship between place, memory, and perception. I use vibrant, non-naturalistic colours and dynamic brushwork to convey an emotional response to place. By reimagining the scene through emotion rather than observation, I reflect on how unfamiliar places gradually become part of our personal histories.
Fractured World
Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in, 2026
Fractured World is an abstract interpretation of the same landscape that inspired Drift II. Fragmented forms and layered structures reflect experiences of uncertainty, change, and adaptation. Rather than presenting fragmentation as loss, the work considers how moments of disruption can create opportunities for growth, transformation, and new ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us.
Bound Across Time
Mixed media, 33 x 33 in, 2026
Bound Across Time This work explores transformation, memory, and the relationship between past and present. By partially repainting an earlier painting and stitching red yarn directly into the canvas, I engage in a process of both destruction and creation.
In Chinese culture, the red line symbolizes destiny - an intangible yet unbreakable connection that transcends time and space. I reinterpret this concept as a bond that connects my past, present, and future as an artist. The red line connects the repainted part and half covering the old painting like a curtain, implying that past works cannot be erased and can only be transformed.
This piece asks what it means to move forward without erasing the past and exploring new possibilities. Rather than presenting a resolved image, this painting exists as an ongoing negotiation between control and chance, past and present.