Sigrid Xiyuan Qian

Sigrid Xiyuan Qian is a Los Angeles–based painter working in oil, oil pastel, colored pencil, and house paint on linen and wood panel. Her paintings are built slowly in layers, often on linen hung directly on the wall. In recent work, she leaves areas of the linen unpainted, so the surface stops short of full coverage and earlier stages of the painting remain visible.

Qian grew up in rural Jiangsu, China and began studying art at fourteen, later training in Beijing before moving to the United States. She holds a BFA in Illustration from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Her early training was rooted in realism, and her current practice developed as a deliberate departure from it.

In 2025 she presented her solo exhibition Traces at the Sasse Museum of Art in Pomona, reviewed in Whitehot Magazine. Her work has also been shown at the Seattle Art Fair and Art Santa Fe, in Time Lag at the Sasse Museum of Art, and in the 41st Annual Made in California juried exhibition at Brea Gallery, juried by Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Projects. She works from her studio in the Bendix Building in downtown Los Angeles.