Between Generations: Huang Teng Zhu’s Award-Winning Oil Painting on Love and Expectation

In Expectations of Life, Huang Teng Zhu transforms deeply personal life experiences into a contemplative oil painting that speaks to universal emotional transitions. Rooted in family relationships and the subtle shift of generational roles, the work reflects on how love, care, and expectation move quietly from one generation to the next.

Rather than presenting a dramatic narrative, the painting unfolds like a memory—softened by time, shaped by emotional distance, and held together by intimacy. It is a work about becoming aware of oneself within family structures: realizing when one’s role has changed, and understanding how expectations are both inherited and transformed through love.

Recognized with the Gold Prize in Oil Painting at the Future Art & Design Award 2025 Winter Season, Expectations of Life resonated with jurors for its emotional sincerity and its ability to translate private reflection into a shared human experience.

Q: What initially inspired this project? Was there a particular idea, moment, or question that sparked its creation?

Huang Teng Zhu: This project originated from my own life experiences. Issues related to family dynamics and changes in family roles have been something I have faced over a long period of time. Sometimes I chose to avoid them, while at other times they naturally unfolded in everyday life. When a new generation entered my family, my role quietly shifted, and I became aware of myself as an elder, beginning to develop expectations and a desire to build meaningful connections within this new relationship.

Through this process, I gradually realized that love is often accompanied by expectations and blessings, and that these emotions move across generations. This led me to reflect on my relationship with my mother, and the expectations and care embedded in her love. These reflections on family, shifting roles, and how love and expectations are passed on became the starting point of this work.

Q: What was the most exciting or most challenging aspect of bringing this work to life?

Huang Teng Zhu: When creating this work, the image I held in mind was a moment of interaction between my mother and myself—something that felt like an old photograph shaped by time, filled with memories and emotional traces. I hoped the work could retain a sense of time passing and the atmosphere of recollection.

For me, the greatest challenge did not lie solely in technique, but in whether I could translate the image in my mind into a visual form. As I continue to develop my skills in oil painting, the process of faithfully transforming inner emotions and memories into a tangible image became a particularly challenging yet meaningful part of this work.

Q: How was your experience taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK?

Huang Teng Zhu: Taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK was a very positive experience for me. Being recognized on an international platform brought me a sense of encouragement and reinforced my confidence in continuing along the path of being an artist. This recognition gave me renewed energy and motivation to keep creating.

I was also deeply moved to see that my work could resonate across different regions and cultural contexts. Regardless of style or subject matter, knowing that the work could be understood and felt by people in different parts of the world was both comforting and exciting for me.

Expectations of Life is not only a reflection on family relationships, but also a meditation on time, memory, and emotional inheritance. Through restrained composition and layered sentiment, Huang Teng Zhu invites viewers to reflect on their own place within family histories—where love quietly carries expectations, and expectations, in turn, become another form of care.

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