Qingyuan Liang’s hand-drawn illustration, picture books, zines, and graphic novels are a metamorphic realm where memory, aloneness and restoration are merged. Her art is a rich emotional terrain, in which the viewer is invited to explore inner life with calm and slow pace, using attentiveness as a mode of quest. The aesthetic experience is imbued with transience, mourning, and mellowness. Artistic production springs from reflective solitude, a dimension in which a contemplative beholder may cultivate resistance as a poetic gesture.
Intimate Cosmos: Mapping the Tender Space (17–23 November 2025, 56 Dawes Road Gallery, London) adds layers to Liang’s leitmotifs and expands on her distinctive artistic voice. By the gallery’s main windows, small artworks are strategically arranged to resemble decorative objects or trinkets, items valued more for their aesthetic appeal. Deliberate or not, the association of fine art with craftsmanship, curios, keepsakes, and souvenirs is potent. Conveying art as ornamentation enriches it with a sense of the whimsical, of the attachment we develop to trivial objects. Blurring the boundary between art and collectables allows viewers to engage with the works as both personal items and aesthetic delights. As many of these objects resonate with childhood memories, they evoke sweetness and emotional bonding.
Visitors are welcomed by the comforting magic of fairytales and the warm, immersive world of the playroom. The invitation is clearly that of plunging into childlike revery and imagination, with surroundings functioning as a maternal embrace. Yet the environment conveys not only nurturing and the cosiness of early life learning journeys, but also self-awareness along the path of individual growth in adulthood. Immersed in a landscape evoking the tender textures of toys, stories, and playtime joys, emotions materialise as both deeply personal and widely universal, offering the viewers an invitation to approach grown-up life with optimism and resilient awareness.
Imaginative play is the central theme of textile illustrations, A Lion Wants a Hug, transforming them into tools for reflection, where sweetness, the gentle logic of fairytales, and the intimate world of the playroom provide both aesthetic pleasure and psychological nourishment. In this multimedia exhibition, glazed pottery in soft pastel hues, delicately painted surfaces, and objects reminiscent of bibelots or dollhouse props build a tactile, immersive environment. Clear formal decisions are consistent across all the media, textures, and scales chosen by Liang, and are epitomised in oil paintings on wood such as Forest Zoo and Bringing the Olive Branch. These works recall a sense of intimacy, finesse, and a frolicsome yet meticulous quality.
Hope, harmony, and vitality transpire from Liang’s aesthetic choices and, accordingly, beholders benefit from artworks which instil uplifting feelings in anyone who engages with them. Her work transforms the gallery into a light-hearted space where memory, fantasy, and materiality converge; into an intimate temple where the quiet, sustaining bliss of childish wonder harnesses emotional resilience and inner strength in people of any age.
