Kong Qianyang (b. 1998, Ningbo) is a London-based Chinese artist whose works span across sculpture, installation, photography, and poem. She received a Master’s degree in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2023. Her works speak the narratives that emphasise the architectural heritage and the living memory.
Her sculptures and installation have been exhibited at the Broadwick Studios in Canary Wharf, Angel's Yard and Blackdot Gallery in London. She was recently nominated and given a special award by CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo in Crea Open 2025 (Venice). Kong's work is also published in the first edition of EST8 MAGAZINE (Barcelona), The Holy Art Magazine Issue 07 ( London).
Artist Statement:
My practice tie back to my childhood memory in which I had been living ten years in a compound before the demolition. The nostalgia and unresolved displacement to the change of home drives my works often resonate with the desolate scene of ruin left behind demolition.
The suspension status of ruin manifests the psychological scar that left behind demolition-one that could never been healed seamlessly but shall be acknowledged. In doing so, my work is not to restore the past in full as on one can be back to the past with a completeness, but rather engaging with the single architectural elements like bracket, one column-and-beam structure with the appearance of weathering and human traces.
Perceiving my work as the broken masonry, stuccoed since two centuries ago and holding the lingering warmth of my ancestors’ palms; as the interstice between the beam and column, bearing silent witness to the decline in the mortise and tenon wooden joinery; as a particle of dust, drifting here and there, destined to be swept away by the inevitable tide. My work particularly retrospect the ancient construction that applied long ago in the Chinese architectural complex to examine the culture erosion and the erasure of human existence. I engage with materials that are commonly used in a building's construction-stucco, timber and dust through the method of repetitive deconstruction and accumlation, metaphorizing the endurance of human existence and mirror the evolution of cultural heritage.
Although my work is mostly site-specific responding to one demolition, I relied on the photos that were taken on-site and created the works elsewhere, in the places where I am. In doing so, I allow intangible aspects of those sites to exist in different shapes. In this way, I'm rebuilding collective memory of architecture.
Education
2022-2023
MA, Textiles, Royal College of Art, London
2021-2022
Graduate Diploma, Art and Design, Royal College of Art, London
2017-2020
BA (hons) Fashion and Textile Design: Knitwear for Fashion, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Selected Exhibitions
2025
Last Words of The Dust II, Curated by The Daughters United, Broadwick Studio, London.
Spring Time Event, Fore Street For All CIC, Angel Yard Upper Edmonton, London
15th May-18th May, Echoes of Presence, Blackdot Gallery(https://www.blackdotgallery.com/gallery/kong-qianyang), London.
28 June-19 October, Shelter, The New Art Gallery Walsall, London
Upcoming Exhibition, Blue, Curated by Ellen Kydd, London
2023
A Cocoon Room, Textile Festival, Royal College of Art Kensington Campus, London
Calculate The Memory, Durham University Charity Fashion Show (DUCFS)
2022
Reveal the Fantasy, RCA Textile Department, London
2020 Degree Show, Winchester School of Art, Winchester, United Kingdom
2019 Spinexpo Paris, Cité de la Mode et du Design, France
2018 Retro Game, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China
2022-2023
MA, Textiles, Royal College of Art, London
2021-2022
Graduate Diploma, Art and Design, Royal College of Art, London
2017-2020
BA (hons) Fashion and Textile Design: Knitwear for Fashion, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton
Selected Exhibitions
2025
Last Words of The Dust II, Curated by The Daughters United, Broadwick Studio, London.
Spring Time Event, Fore Street For All CIC, Angel Yard Upper Edmonton, London
15th May-18th May, Echoes of Presence, Blackdot Gallery(https://www.blackdotgallery.com/gallery/kong-qianyang), London.
28 June-19 October, Shelter, The New Art Gallery Walsall, London
Upcoming Exhibition, Blue, Curated by Ellen Kydd, London
2023
A Cocoon Room, Textile Festival, Royal College of Art Kensington Campus, London
Calculate The Memory, Durham University Charity Fashion Show (DUCFS)
2022
Reveal the Fantasy, RCA Textile Department, London
2020 Degree Show, Winchester School of Art, Winchester, United Kingdom
2019 Spinexpo Paris, Cité de la Mode et du Design, France
2018 Retro Game, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China
Press
2025
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202504/30/WS6811ca96a310a04af22bd151.html by ChinaDaily
Fore Street For All e-newsletter
https://est8magazine.com/to-witness,-to-resist-kong-qianyang by EST8 Magazine, Barcelona, Spain
The Holy Art Magazine, Issue 07, London
2024
ReadingCub, Beijing Zhijapan Culture Comunciation Co., Ltd
https://ellenkydd.substack.com/p/studio-update by Ellen Kydd, Elle's Monologue, Online Publication
2022 Red Is on Red, Published by Royal College of Art, Online Publication
Awards
2025 Last Words of The Dust II, Nomination and Special Award by CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo in Crea Open 2025, Venice
2020 Tenderness, Nominated Talent, Fashion Crossover London, United Kingdom
2016 Retro Game, Winner of Creative Design, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China
Work Experience
9/2023-9/2024 Artist Assistant, Sandra Poulson Studio, London
2/2021-8/2021 Knitwear Designer and Product Developer, Peacebird, Ningbo, China
2025
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202504/30/WS6811ca96a310a04af22bd151.html by ChinaDaily
Fore Street For All e-newsletter
https://est8magazine.com/to-witness,-to-resist-kong-qianyang by EST8 Magazine, Barcelona, Spain
The Holy Art Magazine, Issue 07, London
2024
ReadingCub, Beijing Zhijapan Culture Comunciation Co., Ltd
https://ellenkydd.substack.com/p/studio-update by Ellen Kydd, Elle's Monologue, Online Publication
2022 Red Is on Red, Published by Royal College of Art, Online Publication
Awards
2025 Last Words of The Dust II, Nomination and Special Award by CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo in Crea Open 2025, Venice
2020 Tenderness, Nominated Talent, Fashion Crossover London, United Kingdom
2016 Retro Game, Winner of Creative Design, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, China
Work Experience
9/2023-9/2024 Artist Assistant, Sandra Poulson Studio, London
2/2021-8/2021 Knitwear Designer and Product Developer, Peacebird, Ningbo, China