MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Ziqi Chen
Ziqi Chen is a Glasgow-based artist and illustrator. She completed her undergraduate studies in Art and Technology at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. In 2025, she graduated with distinction from the Glasgow School of Art, receiving an MLitt in Contemporary Art Practice.She is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in Printmaking at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, with a research focus on image media. Her work has been exhibited in numerous locations across the China, UK and Germany.
With an interdisciplinary background in art and technology, her work fuses rational structure with artistic sensibility. Working primarily in watercolour, she adopts juxtaposition as a main methodology, exploring the visual convergence of organic forms and artificial constructs.
She incorporates mineral pigments and the layering techniques of Chinese lacquer (Da Qi), recognised as an item of China’ s intangible cultural heritage, into her creative process, rearticulating them through a more contemporary painterly language.
Instead of confining herself to a fixed trajectory, she is currently focusing on the interplay between the natural and the synthetic amid conditions of information oversaturation in the post-digital era. Through a bold, vivid colour palette and symbolic motifs, her work examines how opposing materials and symbolic systems can coexist and interact on a single surface.
—Exhibitions—
China–Hungary “Symbiosis — 4th International Digital Art Triennial,” Hangzhou, China, 2025.
Between Dreamscape and Digital Echoes, PADK Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2025.
Something in the Mirage, SIX FOOT Gallery, Glasgow, UK, 2025.
Starter Pack, SIX FOOT Gallery, Glasgow, UK, 2025.
Day Dreaming, Glasgow School of Art, UK, 2025.
Annual Exhibition of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China, 2024.
—Awards—
Selected for the 2025 China Illustration Art Yearbook, 2026.
Shortlisted, ArtEvol 2025: Voices from the Undefined, London, 2025.
Second Prize, ‘Challenge’ Science and Technology Invention Category, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, 2023.
Silver Award, KAN TAI-KEUNG International Design Award, Student Category, 2022.
Judge KAN TAI-KEUNG’s Award, KAN TAI-KEUNG International Design Award, 2022.
Bronze Award, Singapore Art Design Contest, 2022.
…
The Syntax of Vitality
This is a New Year artwork commissioned by GSA.
I extracted the key virtues of the Chinese Zodiac of horse, such as freedom, inclusivness, and resilience, then deconstructed these motifs representing these virtues and reassembled them through a surrealist approach to construct the composition.
The horse is represented as a toy pony, an embodiment of happiness and innocence. Other motifs in the painting include the tulip, which dominates the frame, symbolising universal love and triumph.
The tulip blossom, together with the dynamic movement of the other elements in the composition, forms an ‘infinity’ symbol, conveying the promise of an open future filled with endless possibility. The clownfish represents inclusiveness (because of its ability to coexist with toxic sea anemones); the swallow represents the spring and freedom; the hand acts as a symbol of acceptance; and the Möbius strip represents perpetual renewal and bids farewell to the Year of the Snake.
IG Article https://www.instagram.com/p/DUp4AdoiBE7/
IG Homepage https://www.instagram.com/sphinxspeaking/
