2024 MFA Thesis Exhibition

I am an artist dedicated to the perpetual exploration of self through the meditative acts of painting and drawing. I delve deeply into the vastness of line work that translates my subjective thoughts and emotions into tangible visual expressions. My works revolve around painting, drawing, and the subconscious world through the delicate intricacies of Micron pen or fluid oil paints, allowing a profound immersion into the unseen realms of the mind.

In my body of work, lines are the sinuous pathways into an imaginary landscape that is infinite and endless. My hand, guided by instinct and emotion, crafts irrational and unexpected lines, every gestural mark a testament to the terrain of the mind. I create a dream-like surreal world from my inner self and an immersive internal landscape. It is a psychological space, a visual representation of the inside.

In the Chinese lexicon, the phrase “绪, 思端也” alludes to the tip of a thread, symbolizing emotions and thoughts. Drawing inspiration from this, I’ve chosen lines as threads to depict the intricate landscape of my innermost sentiments. The continuity of lines is the main element of my art making. Traditional Chinese landscape paintings have been a source of inspiration for my drawing practice, and I choose scrolls as the surface material. The act of folding the scroll is symbolic. When the scroll is rolled around the central axis, multiple scenes overlap and meet, and different narrative encounters challenge the concept of time, unveiling infinite possibilities. The act of unrolling the scroll becomes a performance, revealing the illusionary world I’ve birthed to the audience.

I invite viewers to trace the lines, to journey through the motions and emotions, and to immerse themselves in the visual stories I create.

Meiqi Kong is a New York-based artist who was born in 1999 in China. She received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2019-2022) in Painting and Drawing, and has been an MFA candidate at Parsons the New School for Design since 2022. Kong uses meticulous line work to depict the unseen realms of the mind, utilizing Micron pens and oil paints to interpret subjective emotions into tangible visual forms. Kong’s works are inspired from traditional Chinese landscape paintings and the concept of ‘绪, 思端也,’ using lines as threads to weave her innermost sentiments. The use of scrolls provides a performative and temporal dimension, challenging conventional perceptions of time and narrative.