Shi Qi Exhibition

SHI QI I PARIS CULTURAL SPACE

INTO THE FOLDS OF TIME

EXHIBITION I MARCH 20 – MAY 15, 2025

The ICICLE Paris Cultural Space presents Into the Folds of Time by Shi Qi, a Chinese artist living in Paris since 2002. Having explored a range of materials and techniques, Shi Qi has developed an intuitive, gesture-driven approach. Into the Folds of Time presents a series of her most recent works, created between 2024 and 2025. Blurring the lines between painting and paper sculpture, these three-dimensional creations are born out of a process which combines rigour and chance, control and improvisation. In this dialogue with the material the fold occupies a central place. More than a simple process or a recurring motif, it is a veritable matrix of creation, a space of transformation between the visible and the invisible and a language in its own right.

ICICLE CULTURAL SPACE I PARIS
35 AVENUE GEORGE V, PARIS 8
MONDAY TO SATURDAY, 11 AM – 7 PM

SHI QI

Born in Wenzhou in 1978, Shi Qi graduated from the prestigious China Academy of Art. She moved to France in 2002 to continue her studies at the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy.

The early years of her career were marked by awards and group exhibitions in Beijing, Hangzhou, Paris and New York. After a hiatus spent raising children and teaching, her reemergence was characterised by a major formal shift towards abstraction. Using ink on paper or acrylic on canvas, with a highly personal grammar, Shi Qi's pictorial quest resonates with that of Qi (气), the essential notion of Chinese cosmology, the primordial breath which animates and connects all beings. Since 2022, Shi Qi has taken part in several group exhibitions in China, France and Germany.

Traces of the days, 2021, Ink and xuan paper on canvas, 46 x 38 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

Shi Qi Exhibition at the ICICLE Cultural Space in Paris

Messages 250123, 2025, Ink and xuan paper on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

Messages 250207, 2025, Ink and xuan paper on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

Messages 250124, 2025, Ink and xuan paper on canvas, 60 x 60 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

Sequence 250217, 2025, Ink, acrylic and xuan paper on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

Sequence 250219, 2025, Ink, acrylic and xuan paper on canvas, 120 x 80 cm, Courtesy of the artist.

PARIS CULTURAL SPACE

ICICLE opened a cultural space in Paris in 2019, dedicated to creating opportunities for exchange and discovery. Guided by a belief in the importance of encounter, the cultural programme fosters dialogue and cross-fertilisation.
On the 3rd floor of the ICICLE store at 35 Avenue George V, the ICICLE Cultural Space hosts exhibitions devoted to art and design, and features a uniquely diverse bookshop. Its selection spans materials and images (architecture, painting, art, crafts), words and ideas (philosophy, poetry, literature, history, sinology), and practices and tastes (tea and Tao arts, martial arts and meditation techniques).