Xue Tong is a London-based artist whose paintings unfold as dreamlike narratives where memory, desire, and symbolism intertwine. Drawing from personal experience as well as mythic and emotional landscapes, her works create poetic scenes populated by figures, animals, celestial elements, and fragments of imagined stories.

 

Working primarily with oil and mixed media, Tong constructs visual worlds that hover between reality and imagination. Recurring motifs—such as birds, celestial bodies, musical instruments, and solitary figures—act as symbolic carriers of emotion, reflecting themes of intimacy, longing, vulnerability, and transformation. These elements appear suspended in theatrical spaces where the everyday dissolves into something surreal and contemplative.

 

Tong’s practice is driven by an interest in how personal experiences can be translated into visual allegories. Her paintings often resemble fragments of unfinished stories, inviting viewers to enter ambiguous psychological spaces where humor, tenderness, and quiet tension coexist.

 

Through a combination of expressive color, symbolic imagery, and narrative composition, Tong explores the fragile boundaries between innocence and desire, fantasy and reality. Her work proposes painting as a space where emotional truths can surface in unexpected and poetic forms.

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

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Form From Formlessness – Lushen Gallery, Shanghai, China​

2023 Art Shopping – Louvre Carrousel, Paris, France

On Purple: The Purpose of Hue – 21th London Design Festival, London, UK

Frameless Contact – Old Brompton Gallery, London, UK

Ten Fingers Connected to the Heart – Mandy Zhang Art Gallery, London, UK

First Edition – Boomer Gallery, London, UK

Flower – Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, Beijing, China

Paintings of Black Bridge – More Art Gallery, Beijing, China

Star – (SOLO) CB Lab, Beijing, China​

Collective Healing – The Crypt Gallery, London, UK

Supercritical State – M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery, London, UK

Out of Focus – WuXu Exhibition Space, Shanghai, China

Thick Description – Himalayas Art Museum, Shanghai, China

New Generation – Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, Beijing, China

Unforeseeable Senses – (TWO PERSON) Four Seasons Hotel Beijing, Beijing, China

Rebirth – (SOLO) Beiji Mansion, Beijing, China

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PUBLICATIONS

 

Nouvelles D’ Europe 

On Purple: The Purpose of Hue;

Best Exhibition in Mayfair at the 21st London Design Festival

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Tate Etc. 

On Purple: The Purpose of Hue

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PRIZES & COLLECTIONS

 

Best of Exhibition – Joint Winner, 21st London Design Festival, London, UK

Emerging Artist Excellence Award “On Purple” – Sole Winner, 21st London Design Festival, London, UK

Public Collection – Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing, Beijing, China

Corporate Collection – Clement Arts, Beijing, China