Education
2025 100 Design Projects Short Course, Central Saint Martins, London, UK
2023-2024 MA Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2022-2023 Graduate Diploma Art & Design, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2017-2021 BFA, Oil Painting, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
Award
2025 Arte Laguna Prize 2025, First Selection, Sculpture & Installation
2025 Elected an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society. (ARWS)
2023 RWS New Graduate Award, Royal Watercolour Society Open 2023
Residency
2025 Periplus Workshops, Crete, Greece
2024 Standpoint Gallery, London, UK
Press Coverage / Media
2026 Aesthetica Material Encounters: The Sculpture of Miao Tan
2026 Unfinished Surfaces: Material, Tension, and Tactility in Miao Tan’s Practice
2025 Artron News, 漆奇岂器：时间褶皱与身体记忆, QIQIQIQI Studio: Time Folds and Bodily Memory
2025 The Cold Magazine, Lacquer as Memory in the Work of MIAO Tan
2025 Artisle Exhibition review | QIQIQIQI: Folds of Time and Bodily Memory
2025 Qiyan The Marvels of Lacquer, Far More Than Mere Objects
Talks & Events
2025 Meet the Artist, The Shapes of Water, Bankside Gallery, Royal Watercolour Society, London
Writing &Publications
Jun 2025 At the Source: Material Knowledge and Embodied Practice in Natural Lacquer Harvesting
Field Research Collaboration: Vincent Cazeneuve
Nov 2025 The Processual Nature of Lacquer from the Creator’s Perspective: Process, Tactility, and Relations
Sep 2025 On the Cultural Obsession with Origins and Orthodoxy in Lacquer
Exhibitions
[upcoming]
1 Nov 2026 - 27 Feb 2027 Y Gaer Exhibition, Y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery & Library,
Brecon, Wales (UK)
[upcoming]
4 Sep – 6 Sep 2026 Lacquer Before Lacquer Miao Tan Solo Exhibition, curated by Umum+, at KOPPEL Collective, London (UK)
2026 RWS Summer at Bankside Gallery 2026, Bankside Gallery, London (UK)
2026 The Morning of Lodged Shadows, Absent Gallery at Lisson Gallery, Shanghai (CN)
2026 Formless Form, OXO Gallery, OXO Tower Wharf, London (UK)
2026 Skin 100&1: Material as Learned Perception, Alcova, Milan Design Week, Milan (IT)
2026 Royal Watercolour Society at the RWS Gallery, RWS Gallery, London (UK)
2026 RWS Spring 2026: Wherever You Go, There You Are, Bankside Gallery, London [UK]
2026 Mini Picture Show 2025, Bankside Gallery, London (UK)
2025 RWS Autumn 2025: The Shapes of Water, Bankside Gallery, London (UK)
2025 Summer at Bankside Gallery 2025, Bankside Gallery, London (UK)
2025 Periplus Exhibition, Alikianos Junior High School, Crete, Greece (GR)
2025 Unanchored Crafting, London Craft Week 2025, Alsolike Gallery, London (UK)
2025 Chez Moi, Swanfall Gallery at Gallery 46 London (UK)
2024 Set In Motion, MENG LONDON x COLD MAGAZINE, London (UK)
2024 Full of Work that Has Never Been Done, Studio building, RCA Battersea, London (UK)
2024 Material Voices, St.ART Gallery, London (UK)
2024 Existing in Shadowland, Artsect Gallery, London (UK)
2024 Reportage, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow (UK)
2024 Echoes of Existence, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
2024 Sixth Sense, Standpoint Gallery, London (UK)
2023 China: A Consolidated History, Great Hall in Goldsmiths, London (UK)
2023 Abstract Tangles, Cista Arts gallery, London (UK)
2023 Through the Looking Glass, Mall Galleries, London (UK)
2023 The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 211th Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London (UK)
2023 Royal Watercolour Society Open 2023, Bankside Gallery, London (UK)
2021 BIGGER Guangzhou Art Book Exhibition, Guangzhou Future Society, Guangzhou (CN)
2021 Wutopia: Natural Art Exhibition, Shanghai Feichang Cultural Communications, Shanghai (CN)
2021 Double Distance, Minzu University of China, Beijing (CN)
2019 Field Research Exhibition, Minzu University of China, Beijing (CN)