Wenqing Zhai (b.1998, Dalian, China) is an artist whose work explores how imagery shapes the way we come to see and believe. She draws from visual traditions such as propaganda posters and children’s book illustrations, distinct forms that nonetheless share a subtle didactic force. Her paintings build on props related to Jungian sandplay therapy, in which she uses these fabricated objects to examine how metaphor and allegory operate within personal narrative. Through staged scenes marked by dramatic lighting, the protagonists in her paintings function as stand-ins for systems of belief. Rather than offering fixed or instructive messages, Zhai approaches each painting as an open script, one that invites viewers to project their own readings while reflecting on how visual stories are engineered and how they shape the stories we come to accept.