K:art Studio: Expanding the Field of Image and Material
- Goddessarts Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Founded in London in 2022 by Angel Qin and Manka Yue, K:art Studio is an artist-led organisation dedicated to practice-based research and production. Emerging from a studio-oriented framework, the organisation developed around a sustained curatorial judgement: that the image must retain material autonomy and visual presence, and that experimentation need not exist in opposition to long-term cultural or institutional value.
In 2025, K:art Studio launched its contemporary art gallery programme, extending its research-led foundation into a more defined exhibition and representation structure. While maintaining its studio ethos, the organisation now operates across exhibitions, art fairs and prize initiatives, positioning itself as a platform that supports artists whose practices resist easy readability and sustain visual intensity over time.
Rather than amplifying spectacle, K:art Studio focuses on constructing conditions in which material, perception and structure remain in productive tension. Its programme emphasises artists who challenge inherited hierarchies, question infrastructural systems and construct works that require physical and cognitive engagement.
EXPO CHICAGO 2026: The Arsenal Index
At EXPO CHICAGO 2026, K:art Studio presents The Arsenal Index, a focused presentation examining the relationship between body and technology, tradition and modernity. The title references the “arsenal” as both a site of storage and a structure of strategy, suggesting a space where images accumulate force and operate within broader systems of control, logistics and meaning.
The exhibition foregrounds Dafu Yan as the principal artist. Yan’s practice responds to contemporary geopolitical and infrastructural realities, translating abstract systems of authority and verification into tangible spatial environments. Rather than presenting declarative political narratives, he constructs perceptual sites that require bodily navigation and sustained looking.
Two major works anchor the presentation:
Sima (2023)78 × 68 × 98 cmCarbonised ash, wood wax oil, hemp cloth, resin, iron, stainless steel
Sima reinterprets a historical term referring to the management of warhorses—a role situated between logistical labour and supreme command. By displacing and redefining this function, the work unsettles inherited hierarchies of power. Operating simultaneously as image and object, it creates a suspended atmosphere in which monumentality and fragmentation coexist.
Logistics · Proved (2022)250 × 170 × 88 cmBirch panel, pine, stainless steel, white oak, arrows, oil paint, resin, rubber, periscope, electric light
Part of a paired installation, the work interrogates systems of verification and resource justification. Three focused lights illuminate the underside of a contained structure, raising a central question: are resources the ultimate rationale behind action? Through layered material construction, Yan renders visible the mechanisms through which authority is rationalised and stabilised.
Alongside Yan, the presentation includes work by Yucen Liu, whose interdisciplinary practice translates digital-age cultural symbols into sculptural form, exploring how technological systems reshape contemporary existence.
2026 Programme and Future Direction
Beyond EXPO CHICAGO, 2026 marks a significant year for K:art Studio’s international development. The organisation will participate in KunstRAI Amsterdam (22–26 April 2026), expanding its presence within the European art fair circuit.
In summer 2026, K:art Studio will present its annual exhibition in London, continuing its commitment to research-driven curatorial practice. In autumn 2026, it will launch the second edition of the KANE Art Prize, reinforcing its long-term investment in emerging artists and critical discourse.
Through exhibitions, art fairs and prize initiatives, K:art Studio continues to position itself as a platform where material experimentation, structural inquiry and sustained artistic development converge.
