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.

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’s ceramic 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.