Qi Fang Colbert is an active artist, ceramist illustrator, art tutor and independent researcher working between art practice and academic research. Qi was trained to be a practice- led PhD in Fine Art at Newcastle University, UK, after her her MA and BA of Visual Design at Jiangnan University, China.

 

Fine Art

Qi’s contemporary works encompass various mediums including drawing, illustration, animation, pottery and video installations, with a focus on exploring the development and the transforming identities, misplaced individuals, experience of place in dramatic social changes and cultural dislocations globally and locally. Qi attempts to bridge the unknown, fear and surreal of the new with the realities of a rapidly developing globalisation, cultures and communities by constructing conversations via space and image, with which she invites her audiences to challenge and explore the conventional definitions of self, memories, identity, and the human nature.

 

Major works are exhibited internationally and nationally in Edinburgh, Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield, Ashington, UK and Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuxi, Ningxia, China. Major installation exhibition includes By No Definition (2015), Northern Landscapes: Picture Poems (2016), The Outsiders (2017) at Newcastle University (Gosforth Civic Theatre, 2017) and The Reversible Future (2016) at Abject Gallery, Breeze Creatives, and The Temporary Entrance, DSFA (2021), accompanied by publishes in Art Review Magazine Issue 50, 2019, Speech The Meanings of Transformation, Beijing University of Agriculture, 2019, The Urgency of Art, Royal College of Art (2019), ‘The Power and Influence of Illustration’ (Alan Male, 2018), Evolving Fields - Sensorially, Imagination and Memory in the Humanities Experience, Queen’s University Belfast (2017) and etc.

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Ceramic:

As part of her PhD in Fine Art and Art History, Qi explored the transformation between 2D and 3D narrative pictures in video installation, which later informed her passion to combine original drawings with ceramics.

 

Qi works primarily with hand-built and thrown high-fire white stoneware with free-hand carved and inlaid original designs. The illustrated works celebrate different carving techniques (Huahua technique in Chinese, or sgraffito in the western term) on ceramics and are decorated using decorative slips and underglazes.

 

Qi’s ceramics search for conversations and mutual encouragement between the object and her drawings/paintings are deeply inspired by Taoism and Phenomenology philosophy. Rather than following a well-planed blueprint, Qi lets the shape of the clay and drawing determine the composition. Like a spreading vine, her expressive pictures find ways to shape the object, forming the outlines and content, vice versa, to capture the flow of consciousness, stories and emotions. Instead of searching for uniformity and certainty, Qi’s ceramics call for a curiosity of the unknown, abnormal and asymmetrical. They create an open and often circular narrative that offer up an alternative way of telling stories.

 

The works range from food-safe functional items such as bowls, mugs and jugs to decorative pieces of jewellery, badges, wall hangings and sculptures. All works are stored and packed using sustainable & biodegradable materials.

 

Qi is a member of North Potters Association and associate member of Craft Potters Association.

 

Qi’s ceramic works have recently been exhibited and sold by

Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art, ELC Winter Market (Gateshead), Made. UpNorth (NCL), Potfest in the Pen (Penrith), Craft in the Pen (Skipton), Living North Winter Fair (NCL), Breeze Creatives (Marley Fair and Abject Gallery, Tyne & Wear), Cupola Gallery (Sheffield), Woodhorn Museum (Ashington), Baltic Gallery Art Fair, Tarpey Gallery (Derby) and at No.1 Kirkharle (Northumberland).

 

Uncoming events in 2024 include York Ceramic Fair, Artisan Made UK, Endless Love Makers Market (Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art), Potfest (Scone Palace, Penrith), Hepsworth Wakefield Ceramic Fair, Only Clay, Potfest (Scone Palace and Penrith), Alnmouth Arts Festival and etc.