The team and the workshop
The people who design, make and install the work, and the workshop in Tianjin.
The team
Founder
Yang Ruolan
Yang Ruolan founded QI-LIGHT and leads the design. The workshop is in Tianjin, with kilns, leading benches, a steel shop and installation crews.
- 71projects
- 25+cities and regions
Artist
Yang Ruolan graduated from the China Academy of Art in mural painting, both undergraduate and master’s. Her work runs across painted glass, mosaic, printmaking and mixed-media installation, and her published research is on the linear language of painted glass.
Xia Yu Ge, 2023 · Stained glass mosaic, 142 × 250 cm
Guan Zhen Zhi Zhi, 2021 · Stained glass mosaic, 70 × 94 cm
Guan Zhen Zhi Zhi, detail
Xia Yu Ge, six details
Design lead
At QI-LIGHT she leads the design of a commission: reading the architecture, drawing the cartoon at full size, setting the palette against the building’s real light, and staying with the piece through firing, leading and installation.
Xia Yu Ge, installed
Full-size cartoon: the lead lines
Working drawing: panels, dimensions and glass codes
The Workshop
The workshop handles cutting, painting, firing, leading, soldering, cementing and crating; the site crew does the installation. The steel sub-frames for domes and overhead work are made in the same workshop.
Academy Collaborations
For several of the large-scale public projects shown here, some of the drawings were completed by the mural team of a leading Chinese art academy; fabrication and installation were undertaken by us.
Record
Selected exhibitions, awards, commissions and writing by the founder.
Exhibitions
- 2024Xia Yu Ge14th National Exhibition of Fine Arts — Mural section, preliminary selection
- 2024Shanhai Shenshou — public art seriesEastern Wisdom, Zhejiang Art Museum & Chengdu Art Museum
- 2024The Eastward Transmission of Buddhism6th World Buddhist Forum — invited work
- 2023Za Bu Qian Si Ji17th Shanghai Youth Art Exhibition
- 2023Xia Yu GeContemporary Works Invitational, Mural Art Committee of the China Artists Association
- 2022Guan Zhen Zhi Zhi — painted stained glassBrilliance of Space — Shanghai Mural Invitational, published in catalogue
Commissions & research
- 2024Mural painting and polychrome sculpture, Yulong Temple, Enshi — China Academy of Art research commission
- 2023Over 1,200 m² of campus murals, Xichang, Sichuan — planning, design and on-site execution
- 2022Lion Dance mosaic series, Yuejiangnan banquet hall, Xiaoshan, Hangzhou
Awards
- 2024National Scholarship for Graduate Students
- 2023Outstanding Graduate, Zhejiang Province & China Academy of Art
- 2022National Scholarship for Undergraduates
- 2021Zhejiang Provincial Government Scholarship
Writing & talks
- 2023“Linear Form Language in Painted Stained Glass”, Yishu Pinjian
- 2023“Between Light and Dark: Making Painted Stained Glass” — talk, 3rd International Forum of the Painting Teaching Alliance of Higher Art Institutions
- 2024“Tabloids and Murals: Intertextuality in the Public Sphere”, Xiaoshuo Yuekan
Workshop
The workshop and kilns are in Tianjin. You are welcome to come and approve a sample, or to see work in progress. Please arrange a visit in advance.
Tianjin