For Chinese multimedia artist and visual storyteller Qingyuan Liang, the poetry of life is written in the margins. Moments that pass unnoticed, words that go unspoken, emotions that take time to unfold. In these she is well versed. With a body of work comprising illustration, painting, and artist’s books, Liang pursues narratives of transience, healing and solitude to reveal a distinctive emotional sensitivity.
“Wishing Well” (details) , 2025. Installation view at the Espacio Gallery. Courtesy of the artist.
Whether through long-form narratives like the charming textile sequence A Lion Wants a Hug (2021), or singular, meditative compositions shaped by mood and place such as Wishing Well (2025) Liang’s work demonstrates an attentiveness to myth, landscape, and the fragile rhythms of life. Her practice is incredibly intuitive, unfolding slowly and with care. Where she glides between mediums–embroidery, painting, illustration, mosaic–and materials with ease, she never loses sight of the sense of comfort and quiet hope that anchor her imagination.
A powdery palette of pastels applied in wisps and whirls imbue Liang’s scenes with an almost childlike naiveté but her paracosmic allegories resist callowness, seeking instead to render evergreen emotional topographies such as grief and resilience. One such example is her illustration novel Bloom (2022-23), composed of six chapters. It follows protagonist Miao, who is beginning to contemplate the meaning of life and death after the passing of her beloved father. The narrative unfolds through a series of tender, introspective conversations between Miao, her family, friends, elders, and children, interweaving fragments of everyday life throughout. Recollections of her father drift through vignettes that determine a quiet cadence after his passing, guided by the seasons that change with bursts of blossom and rust. In the closing scene, release and reconciliation also arrive quietly, embodied in the blooming of a flower in spring.
In Liang’s hands, gentleness is deftly moulded into a mode of resistance, and softness expands into a space for reflection. The oil painting The Pink Man (2025) bears the sentiment that tenderness, in its multifarious forms, is not fragility, but a strength of its own kind. In this profile portrait, one of Liang’s friends who is Muslim, is set against a bubblegum pink backdrop, the colour choice an intentional but subtle probe at how gender and strength are aesthetically perceived. The textures slide between firmness and blur, echoing the complexities of presence, gaze, and cultural embodiment. In this piece, the figure takes on a personal and symbolic quality: a temperate disruption of binaries, and an invitation to see beyond them.
對中國混合媒介藝術家與視覺敘事者梁清源而言，生命的詩意總是書寫在邊緣處：那些未被察覺的瞬間，未曾言說的話語，需要時間緩緩展開的情感。她深諳此道，通過插畫、繪畫與藝術家書等多元創作，追尋著關於轉瞬、療癒與孤獨的敘事，展現出獨特的情感敏感性。
無論是如《A Lion Wants a Hug》（2021）這般以紡織序列展開的長篇敘事，抑或是《Wishing Well》（2025）這類由心境與場所塑造的獨幅冥想式作品，梁清源始終保持著對神話、風景與生命脆弱韻律的敏銳關注。她的創作實踐充滿驚人的直覺性，以細膩緩慢的節奏從容展開。她在刺繡、繪畫、插畫、馬賽克等多種媒介與材料間自如流轉，卻從未偏離那份錨定其想像內核的慰藉感與靜默希望。
柔和的粉彩色調以輕旋薄染的筆觸，賦予梁清源的場景近乎童稚的天真氣韻，然而她所構築的寓言式超驗世界卻超越了稚嫩，意在呈現諸如哀傷與韌性這般永恆的情感地貌。其插畫小說《Bloom》（2022-23）正是如此，全書共六章，跟隨主人公淼在摯愛父親離世後開始思索生命與死亡的意義。敘事透過淼與家人、朋友、長者及孩童之間一系列溫柔內省的對話展開，其間綴滿日常生活的碎片。關於父親的回憶隨四季更迭，在花開花落的輪迴中，以靜謐的節奏流轉於片段之間。終章場景中，釋懷與和解亦悄然降臨，凝作春日一朵綻放的花。
“Bloom” (details) , 2022-2023. Courtesy of the artist.
在梁清源手中，溫柔被精妙地塑造成一種抵抗的方式，柔軟則拓展為沉思的空間。油畫《The Pink Man》（2025）傳遞著這樣的思考：溫柔以其多元形態，並非脆弱，而是一種獨有的力量。這幅側面肖像描繪她一位穆斯林友人，背景是如泡泡糖般的粉紅色調，色彩的選擇是對性別與力量在美學感知層面一次刻意而含蓄的探問。肌理在堅實與朦朧間滑動，呼應著存在、凝視與文化具身的複雜意涵。在此作品中，人物被賦予個人與象徵的雙重品質：既是對二元框架的溫和打破，亦是邀請觀者看向更遠之處的目光。
Text By Millen Brown-Ewens
Published on 16th January 2026
