Bio

Zijing Chen (b. 1997, China) is a London-based visual artist specializing in painting, digital art, graphic novels, and animation. She holds a BA in Painting from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (2020) and an MA in Illustration from Camberwell College of Arts (2022). Zijing’s work, characterized by highly symbolic imagery and an aesthetic of absurdity, explores the dilemmas of human existence through myths, symbols, personal memories, and dreams.

Her art has been featured in notable exhibitions, including the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in London (2023) and "Univocal Crystallization" at Pearllam Galleries, Shanghai (2018). In 2023, her work was included in the China Illustration Art Yearbook. Zijing's artworks are part of collections at the CAEA Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and the T.D. LEE Library at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Artist Statement


My work is driven by the internal paradoxes of humanity, exploring where the world's absurdities surface. I focus on the struggle of individuals caught between opposing forces, showcasing the beauty and vigor of these contradictions.

In my narrative construction, I utilize a literary approach, employing techniques such as repetition, echoes, and ontological inversions to explore and redefine the relationship between the self and the external world. Additionally, some of my earliest memories, which have been perpetuated and reinforced over time, have evolved into distinctive symbols in my artistic expression.

While my mediums vary from easel to digital paintings, from graphic novels to animations, their underlying logic remains consistent. I am consistently drawn to the tension of opposites in my visual language, usually reflected as vibrant, dissonant colors in vast darkness. I believe that confronting our mortality fuels an immense vitality, which is central to my creative endeavors.

Exhibitions & Screenings

2024    Level╬：interlaced revenant Experimental Films Screening, HUOSHUI Space & JGG Space, Beijing & Chongqing, China

2024    Situational, Safehouse 2, London, UK

2024    Public Virtual Group Exhibition, Shapes & Things

2024    In the Coner of My Eye, KOPPEL Collective, London, UK

2024    THE INCORRIGIBLE DRAWING CLÜB.2  Online Exhibition, LADIES DRAWING CLÜB

2024    The World Hath Aged, Whilst Humanity Is Fledgling, M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery, London, UK

2024    A Room of One’s Own, Albert Barnes House, Elephant & Castle, London, UK

2023    Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, Woolwich Works, London, UK

2023   Exist Once in the World — Duo Exhibition of Zijing Chen & Hsuan Yang, Saltspace Gallery, Glasgow, UK

2023   Canal Dream Art Festival, Slash Art & Canal Dream CIC, Regent’s Canal, London, UK

2023   Inward & Outward — Reflections of A New Era of Artists, Deqiu Lixianggu Cultural and Creative Park, Shanghai, China

2022  One Thirty Eight — UAL Camberwell MA Illustration Degree Show, The Ugly Duck, London, UK

2022  Shape of Clay, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK

2020  Blooming June Art Tour of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Online Degree Show,  Sichuan Fine Arts Institute

2019  On the Island — Exhibition for Three Young Artists, X Gallery, Chongqing, China

2018  Univocal Crystallization — Group Exhibition for Univocal Art, Pearllam Galleries, Shanghai, China

Commissions