Kong Qianyang (b. 1998, Ningbo) is a London-based Chinese artist whose works span across sculpture, photography, poem and textile. She has been living in the UK since 2017. From 2017 to 2020, she studied Knitwear for Fashion at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. After moving to London in 2021, she pursued and received a Master’s degree in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2023.
Ruin is the centre of her practice. The ruins laid out an incomplete chronicle that has written the causality of existential ruptures and illuminates the future sequences, from which her practice stems a strong affinity with. Amid the ruins, she perceives herself as the broken masonry, stuccoed since two centuries ago, holding the lingering warmth of her ancestors’ palms; as the void suspended between the brackets and façades of the teetering buildings, bearing witness to the cracks forming in the mortise-and-tenon joints of ancient architecture; as a particle of dust, drifting here and there, destined to be swept away by the inevitable tide.
Fascinated by landscapes, artifacts and craftsmanship, and architecture that testify to geographical shifts, changing social ideologies, and evolving residential environments, she strives to recontextualize those relics through a contemporary lens.
Artist Statement:
To feel the aesthetic of ruin is to lay one's body within the decay, becoming part of the broken tiles. The moment when gazing at the ruin, an inner desolate voice is heard and echoed.
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
Exhibitions
2025 https://canarywharf.com/whats-on/daughters-united-community-collaborations-heritage-week/
Heritage, Curated by The Daughters United, Broadwick Studio, London
2025 Spring Time, Fore Street For All, Angel Yard, London
2025 Upcoming, Blue, Curated by Ellen Kydd, London
2023 A Cocoon Room, Degree Show, Royal College of Art Kensington Campus, London
2023 Calculate The Memory, Durham University Charity Fashion Show (DUCFS)
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
Exhibitions
2025 https://canarywharf.com/whats-on/daughters-united-community-collaborations-heritage-week/
Heritage, Curated by The Daughters United, Broadwick Studio, London
2025 Spring Time, Fore Street For All, Angel Yard, London
2025 Upcoming, Blue, Curated by Ellen Kydd, London
2023 A Cocoon Room, Degree Show, Royal College of Art Kensington Campus, London
2023 Calculate The Memory, Durham University Charity Fashion Show (DUCFS)
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://est8magazine.com/to-witness,-to-resist by Est8 Magazine, Barcelona, Spain
2025 The Holy Art Magazine, Issue 07, London
2025 Upcoming Publication, ReadingCub, Beijing Zhijapan Culture Comunciation Co., Ltd
2024 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
2020 Tenderness, Nominated Talent, Fashion Crossover London, United Kingdom
2018 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://est8magazine.com/to-witness,-to-resist by Est8 Magazine, Barcelona, Spain
2025 The Holy Art Magazine, Issue 07, London
2025 Upcoming Publication, ReadingCub, Beijing Zhijapan Culture Comunciation Co., Ltd
2024 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
2020 Tenderness, Nominated Talent, Fashion Crossover London, United Kingdom
2018 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