Mastering the Brush: A Conversation with Artist Yidan Guo

Pocatello-based artist Yidan Guo learned the art of calligraphy as a young girl in China. She went on to be a student at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts - the most prestigious fine art institution in China, but calligraphy remained with her throughout her studies and training. The art informs her painting and drawing today, from exhibitions in China to Utah and Idaho. 

After moving to Idaho in 2019, she enrolled in the MFA program at Idaho State University, where she embarked on the project Women Who Are Immigrants: intimate portraits of women she has known and interviewed in their daily lives. She also completed the monumental work, Memorial Banners, a commemorative installation of Chinese calligraphy that records the history of Chinese contributions to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the late 19th century. The banners are on display in the library's lecture hall as part of the Winter Read.

Join us for a conversation with Yidan, who will discuss the influence of Chinese calligraphy on her drawing and painting today, and about her work to bring Chinese and Asian immigrant stories to the fore through her extraordinary artwork.

This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Click here to watch online.

This program is part of the 2025 Winter Read of the novel Four Treasures of the Sky, by Jenny Tinghui Zhang, which follows a young woman smuggled to the U.S. from China in the 1880s. Chinese calligraphy plays a central role in the novel and the main character’s ways of understanding and relating to the strange world around here that’s so far from the home she longs for. Learn more about the Winter Read and related events here.

Yidan will also give a workshop on calligraphy the following day at the Sun Valley Museum of Art. Click here to learn more.