Yin Hailong – Chinese Seal Carver

About the Artist

Yin Hailong is the President of the Seal Carving Academy of the China Art Research Institute and a leading innovator in seal script and seal carving. His bronze-inscription style seals (jinwen yin) — archaic, mysterious and boldly individual — have made him one of the most distinctive and influential seal artists of contemporary China.

Artist Introduction

Yin Hailong (尹海龙) was born in 1970 in Qing’an County, Heilongjiang Province. In 1993 he entered the calligraphy and seal carving department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art), and in 1997 joined the China Art Research Institute, where he is now President of the Seal Carving Academy, a member of the Institute’s teaching guidance committee, and a doctoral supervisor. He is a National First-Class Artist, a council member of the Xiling Seal Art Society, a member of the China Calligraphers Association, a member of the Beijing Municipal CPPCC, and an evaluation expert for the Ministry of Education. He discovered the expressive qualities of Song and Yuan dynasty seal script, and found in the compositions of Warring States seals and Shang-Zhou bronze inscriptions a bridge between the two. His bronze-inscription seals are archaic and magnificent, standing alone in the contemporary seal world. His calligraphy — particularly his seal script — reinterprets bronze-cast characters with Song-Yuan brushwork, while his seals combine the layout of ancient seals with the imagery of Shang-Zhou bronzes. For his exhibition “Wandering Together in the Streams and Mountains”, he created a complete set of sixty-four seals of the “Lanting Preface”, its 324 characters distributed across the set — each seal a theme, with inscriptions drawn from the poems of the original Orchid Pavilion gathering. He also works in zisha (purple clay) seals, which demand flawless carving before firing. His knife work is fierce and precise; his small seals are exquisite, his large ones bold and simple.

Works Appreciation

Application Scenarios

Yin Hailong’s seal script calligraphy and bronze-inscription seals are coveted by connoisseurs of contemporary seal art, ideal for collectors, cultural institutions and gift giving of intellectual distinction. His institutional leadership and innovative oeuvre position him as a defining figure of the current generation of Chinese seal artists.