Yiqi Zhao is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice weaves together surrealism, cultural critique, and intricate storytelling. Her work dissects themes of identity, constraint, and resilience, balancing personal introspection with broader societal interrogations. Zhao’s compositions exist in the liminal space between tradition and rebellion, where heritage is both a foundation and a force to be reckoned with. Using the unforgiving permanence of ballpoint pen, she meticulously constructs surreal, hyper-detailed landscapes that question the boundaries of gender, power, and selfhood.
Her Limited Strength series embodies this vision, using hair as both a weapon and a lifeline, a cage and an escape route. Each stroke is a quiet act of defiance, a refusal to be erased. Through her intricate linework and masterful use of negative space, Zhao invites the viewer to confront inherited structures and redefine strength on their own terms.
Origin: China
Currently Exhibiting in: London and New York City
Website: Yiqi Zhao
Social Media: Instagram: @ediez_art
Bio
Yiqi Zhao’s artistic journey began with realism, a means of documenting the external world. Over time, she found that true expression required more than observation—it demanded transformation. Surrealism became her language, allowing her to navigate the contradictions of her identity: tradition and autonomy, belonging and exile, silence and rebellion.
Her academic background spans graphic design, children’s literature, and book illustration, earning a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and a postgraduate degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. Zhao’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at The Holy Art, London (2025), and the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she received Gold and Silver Key awards in national competition. She has also designed arts education workshops, bridging creative expression with hands-on learning.
Zhao’s work fuses Chinese symbolism with contemporary feminist critique, utilizing surreal metaphors to challenge inherited narratives of obedience, femininity, and agency. Her practice is an evolving dialogue—between past and present, between inherited burdens and self-actualization.
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Escape (Limited Strength Series)
- Year of Creation: 2022
- Medium: Ballpoint Pen / Ink
- Dimensions: 297 mm x 420 mm
- Price: $800
- Description:
Escape is a meditation on the act of breaking free, and the forces that tether us even as we run. The swirling ink gradients evoke a vortex of societal chaos, while hyper-detailed strands of hair—rendered with microscopic precision—become both ladder and trap. Zhao’s use of ballpoint pen reflects the inescapability of cultural expectations, where each stroke is as permanent as the systems it critiques. Negative space suggests untapped potential, whispering the question: Are we ever truly free, or merely rearranging our cages?
Safe House or Jail? (Limited Strength Series)
- Year of Creation: 2022
- Medium: Ballpoint Pen / Ink
- Dimensions: 148 mm x 210 mm
- Price: $800
- Description:
This work interrogates the duality of domestic spaces. The composition plays with architectural structure—walls become veils, and reflections replace exits. Within the intricate strands of hair, mirrors replace doorways, reinforcing a cycle of self-observation and solitude. Rather than offering an escape, they reflect only the artist’s own presence, underscoring the isolation that comes from self-imposed protection.
Zhao challenges the assumption that safety and restriction exist on opposite ends of a spectrum, illustrating how what shelters us can also confine us. The intricate weaving of hair acts as both shield and restraint, embodying the paradox of self-preservation—offering comfort while restricting connection. Safe House or Jail? questions when a sanctuary ceases to protect and instead becomes a barrier to growth.
Shut Up (Limited Strength Series)
- Year of Creation: 2022
- Medium: Ballpoint Pen / Ink
- Dimensions: 297 mm x 420 mm
- Price: $800
- Description:
Shut Up confronts the silencing of women, the weight of unspoken expectations, and the power of quiet resistance. A faceless figure is entwined in strands of hair that extend beyond the frame, blurring the line between protection and suffocation. Zhao’s meticulous layering of ink creates a claustrophobic density, reflecting the relentless pressures to conform. Yet within the void, space remains—a whisper of rebellion, a breath held but not yet exhaled.
incomplete (Limited Strength Series)
- Year of Creation: 2022
- Medium: Ballpoint Pen / Ink
- Dimensions: 148mm x 210mm
- Price: $800
- Description:
This striking black-and-white ink drawing intricately weaves elements of surrealism and symbolism. A nude, vulnerable figure sits curled in an introspective pose, enveloped by a cascade of swirling hair that dominates the composition. The hair, twisting and flowing like a living entity, intertwines with various symbolic objects—an anatomical heart, scattered furniture, a teddy bear—each hinting at themes of memory, fragility, and identity. Large hands reach toward the figure, suggesting external forces, protection, or entanglement. The piece evokes a sense of emotional depth, exploring themes of strength, loss, and the complex interplay between self and surroundings.
Exhibition Information
March 2025: “Metamorphosis: Transformations in Art”
Curated by: Paridhi Chawla
Theme: Exploring transformation, change, and evolution through artistic expression.
Exhibition Dates: March 6 – March 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 6 | 6 PM – 8 PM
Guided audio experience
For accessibility, the full video transcript is provided below for those who prefer to read or are unable to listen.
“Yiqi Zhao’s Limited Strength Series unravels the tension between control and escape, tradition and defiance. Using the precision of ballpoint pen, she constructs intricate, surreal compositions where hair becomes both a tether and a tool for liberation. Each stroke is deliberate, etching permanence into paper just as expectations are etched into identity.
In Escape, strands of hair stretch like lifelines, winding through a chaotic vortex. They offer both passage and restraint, urging the viewer to question whether freedom is ever absolute or just another structure we bend to fit inside. The dense ink work carries weight, mirroring the inescapability of cultural forces that shape selfhood.
Safe House or Jail? distorts domestic spaces, turning walls into thresholds where safety and limitation blur. Doors lead nowhere, veils obscure and reveal, challenging the assumption that shelter and confinement exist on opposite ends of a spectrum.
In Shut Up, a faceless figure is wrapped in cascading hair, the strands tightening like unspoken words. The suffocating density of ink captures the relentless pressure to conform, yet within the composition, there is space—small, quiet, but present. Zhao does not render silence as defeat, but as the moment before a choice is made: to endure, or to resist.
With Incomplete, vulnerability is laid bare. A curled figure, surrounded by symbolic remnants—an anatomical heart, fractured furniture, a teddy bear—navigates the weight of memory and identity. Large hands reach in, ambiguous in intent, blurring the lines between care, control, and the echoes of the past.
Zhao’s work does not offer resolution but insists on confrontation. Every line, every omission, every stroke of ink pulls the viewer deeper into the complexity of strength—both the kind that binds and the kind that, despite everything, persists.”