Shi Qi, a Paris-based female artist whose art seeks to reveal poetic relationships. After studying at the Department of Experimental Painting at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (1997-2001), Shi moved to France in 2002, where she continued her training in new media and video at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts Paris-Cergy (2002-2005). The following year, her video installation was exhibited at Maritime Museum in Rochefort, France. During this period, she traveled in Europe and the United States, while also maintaining an annual trip to China.
A distinct shift in her artistic approach emerged in 2020, marking the beginning of her current stylistic trajectory. Constructed from rice paper hand-painted with ink and colour, the artist's three-dimensional works are formed through a process of meticulous folding before being mounted on canvas. These paper reliefs continue the exploration of “the fold” as infinite variation, like a silent melody distilling temporal essence. Inscribing Buddhist scriptures, ancient poems, and painting references onto paper before covering them with ink, she folds her homesickness as a traveller into layered sculptures. Some retain traces of sacred text; others carry impressions of Chinese painting or calligraphy, sedimented layers of private and collective memory. Her acrylic works translate these concerns into abstract compositions exploring time and emotion through colour and gesture.
In 2025, Tradition Transformed marked the gallery's first collaboration with Shi Qi, followed by Alisan Atelier's group exhibition in 2026, titled New Voices in Paris Now: Between Memory and Matter, as part of the French May Arts Festival associated project. Her two most recent solo exhibitions, Into the Folds of Time in 2025 and Blanc in 2026 (Oct 8-Nov 14), both on view in Paris, France.
Her works are in the collections of Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, and China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.
