10 Questions with Tianxi Wang
Tianxi is a freelance artist based in London. After completing her degree in Illustration, she decided to expand her art practice into a wider field, including creating paintings, illustrations, and mixed media works. Her work delves into the intricate interplay of personal emotions and the complex relationships between family, society, and the surrounding environment. Exploring themes of identity, memory, and connection, Tianxi creates paintings that reflect deeply personal yet universally resonant experiences.
Tianxi Wang’s practice grows from the fertile soil of familial memory, tracing invisible currents of tension and emotional residue within intimate bonds. Rather than direct narration, she weaves veiled dialogues between oil paint’s tactile density, the whispered conflicts of warm and cool tones, and archetypal domestic motifs. These elements coalesce into liminal spaces—part physical, part spectral—where concrete details dissolve into surreal atmospheres.
Everyday objects evolve into emotional hieroglyphs in Wang’s work. Chairs, recurring motifs, materialize as solitary sentinels in empty rooms or clustered entities in corners. Their contoured lines—alternately rigid and yielding—echo unseen burdens. In Untitled Room, three chairs lean into an unspoken dialogue, their muted hues and sunken seats mapping absence. Through oil impasto and translucent acrylic layers, these forms oscillate between solidity and dissolution, embodying both physical anchors and vessels for intangible emotions.
Tianxi Wang - Portrait
Experimenting with oil paint, acrylic, oil sticks, and collages, Tianxi experiments with textures and techniques to bring artistic visions to life, trying to expand the possibilities of material and the language of art. By integrating collage into paintings, a synthesis of textures emerges, allowing the work to transcend traditional boundaries and become an exploration of indefinable styles. Tianxi embraces a sense of playfulness and spontaneity, using pieces cut from magazines to explore the possibilities of composition. This experimentation with randomness invites unexpected connections and interactions between shapes, colours, and textures, creating dynamic and layered compositions that feel both organic and deliberate.
Tianxi’s process of painting is deeply meditative, serving as a way to externalize inner thoughts and feelings into visual narratives. These narratives strike a balance between the surreal and the tangible, offering a reflective space for viewers. By weaving lived experiences with cultural and environmental influences, Tianxi creates art that inspires a deeper exploration of the connections between individuals, their surroundings, and the emotions that lie beneath the surface. Through these works, Tianxi seeks to evoke both personal intimacy and universal resonance, encouraging others to engage with their own inner worlds and shared human experiences.
Stop!, Mix Media on Canvas, 40x50cm, 2025 © Tianxi Wang
INTERVIEW
Let's start from the basics. Can you tell us about your background and what led you to pursue a degree in illustration?
I finished my BFA degree at Pratt Institute in New York, majoring in illustration. I then completed my MA program at Edinburgh College of Art, also majoring in illustration. My decision to pursue a degree in illustration stemmed from a deep-seated passion for visual storytelling and the unique freedom of expression the medium offers. More than just creating images, illustration provides me with a powerful language to communicate narratives, ideas, and emotions that resonate with others. It's a way to translate my inner world and perspectives into something tangible and shared. What truly captivates me is the inherent versatility of illustration. It transcends a single form – it can be digital, traditional, experimental, or any blend thereof. This boundless potential for exploration makes the creative process incredibly dynamic and playful. I'm drawn to the constant opportunity to experiment with techniques, styles, and mediums to find the perfect visual solution for each story or concept. This combination of meaningful communication, personal expression, and limitless creative play made me pursue a degree in illustration.
How did your academic training in illustration shape your broader approach to art, and what prompted your transition into painting and mixed media?
My academic training in illustration provided a crucial foundation in visual communication and disciplined craft, but it also instilled a deep appreciation for experimentation and material exploration. The rigorous process of solving visual problems taught me precision, while simultaneously fueling my desire to push beyond traditional boundaries and combine diverse mediums. This inherent curiosity about materials and processes became central to my artistic identity, revealing a need for a more expansive and personally driven exploration. This drive for autonomous creative exploration is whatprompted my transition into the fine art field, specifically painting and mixed media, after graduation. While illustration offered valuable skills, I actively sought a space for deeper self-directed inquiry into materiality, gesture, and abstraction – core concerns of fine art practice. Painting became a powerful vehicle for this, allowing me to investigate colour relationships, surface texture, and sustained mark-making on a more intuitive level. This shift wasn't about abandoning illustration, but rather expanding its experimental core into a broader fine art context, where I could synthesize diverse approaches – drawing, painting, digital elements – into cohesive, self-initiated work focused on personal expression and material investigation.
Rock Star, Oil on Canvas, 60x80cm, 2024 © Tianxi Wang
Hold me tight, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 50x60cm, 2025 © Tianxi Wang
You work with oil, acrylic, collage, and more. What do you enjoy most about experimenting with different materials?
What I enjoy most about experimenting with different materials is the fascination of collaborating with each medium's unique nature. Acrylics offer immediate, vibrant energy – their intense, bright colours bring a fresh, dynamic spark to work. Oils, on the other hand, invite a deeply tactile conversation; I love exploring their rich textures, expressive brushstrokes, and even their slow drying time, which allows me to rework layers thoughtfully. Ultimately, it's this playful yet purposeful process of discovery – letting the materials guide possibilities and spark unexpected solutions – that excites me most.
What does your typical creative process look like when you start a new piece? Could you walk us through your painting process and how your compositions evolve?
My creative process typically begins with generative sketching when I do not have a specific theme or idea in my mind. I start with rapid, instinctual pencil or pen drawings – embracing rough, unfiltered marks to spark ideas. After creating many sketches, I review them to identify compelling fragments or compositions that resonate intuitively. As I refine these chosen sketches, narratives and concepts often emerge organically. Next, I will do more sketches with the colour, experimenting with different colour palettes that subvert expectations – like testing warm hues to convey melancholy instead of literal darkness. When transitioning to the final artwork (whether canvas, panel, or mixed-media surface), I remain open to responsive evolution: brushstrokes, textures, or compositional elements may shift spontaneously as I engage with the materials, allowing the work itself to guide its final form through a dialogue between intention and discovery.
Polka-dot Secret, Mix media on canvas, 20x20cm, 2024 © Tianxi Wang
Your paintings touch on identity, memory, and emotional undercurrents in familial and social dynamics. How do you approach translating these intangible experiences into visual forms?
I translate intangible experiences into visual forms by distilling complex emotions into resonant moments or symbolic objects—a shared meal holding unspoken tensions, a warm hug or a chair embodying sanctuary. These fragments become emotional portals, inviting viewers to project their own memories. Critically, colour acts as both atmosphere and emotional syntax within these scenes. I explore palettes that amplify or subtly complicate the narrative: warm light washing over a tense family dinner to evoke claustrophobic nostalgia or bruised purples lingering in the shadows of a peaceful embrace to hint at loss. This interplay of symbol, moment, and intentional colour language allows me to convey psychological depth without literal explanation, transforming private memory into visceral, shared resonance.
Chairs recur in your work as poetic symbols, sometimes solitary, sometimes grouped. How do these archetypal domestic motifs function as symbols of psychological and emotional tropes?
Chairs function in my work as silent witnesses to human presence, embodying psychological states through their form, placement, and context. Crucially, they resonate with me as primal symbols of safeness and settlement. A solitary chair becomes an intimate portrait of absence or anticipation—its emptiness holding space for memory, solitude, or unspoken longing. When chairs are grouped, their arrangement maps invisible relational dynamics: chairs angled toward one another suggest intimacy or tension; rigid alignment implies formality or distance. I strip narratives to their emotional essence—using the chair not as furniture, but as an archetypal vessel for safety, displacement, or the fragile architecture of human connection.
The man lying on the ground, Oil on Canvas, 60x80cm, 2024 © Tianxi Wang
Lobster Man, Mix Media (Oil and Collage) on Canvas, 20x20cm, 2024 © Tianxi Wang
Your art feels both very personal but also easy to relate to. How do you navigate this duality and invite viewers into that shared emotional space?
I navigate this duality by grounding every piece in lived emotional truth. My work begins with feelings that are deeply personal and really exist—whether it's the weight of solitude or the warmth of belonging. This authenticity becomes the anchor. Then, through stylistic transformation—abstracting forms, amplifying colour, or distilling moments into symbolic objects—I create space for others to enter. By translating raw emotion into the shared visual language (archetypal motifs, resonant palettes, tactile surfaces), I preserve the intimacy of my experience while removing literal specifics. This invites viewers to project their own memories onto the work. The chair that embodies my safety becomes their sanctuary; the blurred figure in a warm light that carries my nostalgia whispers to their longing. It's not about universalizing my story, but uncovering emotional universals through personal honesty—where authenticity meets abstraction to create connection.
What emotional or psychological reflection do you hope to evoke in viewers as they navigate the quiet tensions and layered symbolism in your paintings?
I aim to create an emotional resonance that vibrates on multiple frequencies. I hope viewers feel the core sensations embedded in the work—whether it's the weight of sorrow or the heat of anger. I want the reflection to be deeply personal yet universally familiar: a mirror for the viewer's own emotional landscape, where gravity and lightness coexist.
The Eager Diner, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 40x50cm, 2025 © Tianxi Wang
How do your cultural roots and current environment in London inform the emotional and symbolic layers within your work?
My perspective was shaped by living independently across different countries, far from family. This distance transformed how I understand relationships — it made me deeply feel both the absence and enduring connection with loved ones. That tension — the ache of solitude mixed with the warmth of invisible bonds — became a core theme in my work. Living alone heightened my awareness of how people navigate closeness and separation, both physically and emotionally. I translate this into universal symbols: an empty chair holding space for memory, crowded tables where figures feel isolated, or objects radiating quiet presence. London's fluid, multicultural energy further fuels this exploration of how intimacy persists across distances. Ultimately, my work channels these very human emotions — longing, resilience, belonging — into visual poetry that resonates beyond my personal story
Lastly, can you share any upcoming projects or areas of research you're excited to explore next, either thematically or materially?
For the content/theme, I want to focus more on exploring and expressing my feelings about intimate relationships, especially based on my memory and stories with my family members. I also want to continue my experimentation with mixed-media works to see what I can bring further in the form of collage, maybe paint on different surfaces or create some pieces and find a new and interesting way to collage them together.
Artist’s Talk
Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.
