Ellipsis Prints
Portrait of the artist Qian Qian

Artist · Collection Three · 2023

Prints by Qian Qian

Qian Qian is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice examines language, translation and the unstable space between meaning and misunderstanding. Working primarily across watercolour, oil painting and interactive installation, she builds intricate visual systems that draw equally from mythology and folklore, Newtonian and quantum physics, ancient theology and contemporary philosophical thought.

Qian Qian’s work often unfolds as a speculative framework — a site where cosmology, narrative and scientific inquiry intersect. Diagrams, symbolic forms and layered mark-making suggest both organic growth and theoretical structure. Rather than illustrating knowledge, Qian Qian constructs visual propositions: spaces where language fractures and meaning remains in flux.

Qian Qian completed her MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2018. She was shortlisted for FBA Futures in 2019, recognising emerging artists in contemporary painting and drawing, and in 2023 was awarded the Mother Art Prize Online Award — a significant platform supporting women artists internationally.

Across her practice, Qian Qian continues to explore how knowledge is formed, mistranslated and reimagined through image.

Most recently, Qian Qian received the Judge’s Choice award in the College of Psychic Studies Art Competition 2026, and was also a recipient of support from the Eaton Fund in 2026. Earlier in the year, her work featured in Another World at Frestonian Gallery, alongside Christopher Cook, Wenhui Hao and Mircea Teleagǎ, bringing together artists with a shared interest in surreal landscapes and narratives.

“Qian Qian explores the gaps between language, meaning and interpretation. Through diagrams, symbols and marks, her work questions how information is communicated and how easily it can be misunderstood.”

Kate Neave, Curator