On June 10, Beijing-based artist Huang Rui received the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland at a ceremony held at the Embassy of Poland in Beijing. While the award was presented in person by Polish ambassador to China Jakub Kumoch during the event, it had been officially conferred earlier on February 18, with the certificate signed by Polish president Andrzej Duda.

Established in 1974, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland recognizes individuals who have significantly contributed to international cooperation and strengthening Poland’s ties with other nations. The Commander’s Cross with Star is the second-highest accolade within the Order’s five-tier system. After receiving the distinction, the artist shared on social media, “Today’s honorary insignia . . . was an opportunity for [me] to say, quite simply, that we must continue to fight for freedom.”

Huang was the first Chinese artist to publicly respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through his work. In March 2022, shortly after the full-scale assault began, he participated in “Together for Peace,” a special event co-organized by the Polish and Ukrainian embassies at the Polish Institute in Beijing. There, he presented five paintings, including Absence of Black Moon (2022), which he created immediately after the war’s outbreak.

Following this exhibition, Huang held a solo show titled “The Absence of Peace” (2023), hosted by the Polish embassy in Beijing. This presentation showcased his earlier paintings as installations arranged throughout the space. For his series The Absence of Peace (2022), Huang drew on Under One Small Star, a 1972 poem by Nobel laureate and Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, integrating selected texts onto the canvases. At the exhibition’s closing ceremony, Jan Jerzy Malicki, director of the Polish Institute in Beijing, said that the show was intended to offer a platform for Huang to further express his antiwar stance as a Chinese artist.

Sanle Yan is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.