Olivia Qi is a Chinese-born artist and metalsmith based in the U.S. She works across jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, and performance. Her work explores themes of identity, memory, motherhood, and cultural duality, often through symbolic materials like spoons, lips, chains, and clouds.
Raised in Inner Mongolia and shaped by traditional Chinese family structures and the independence of American life, Olivia’s work confronts expectations placed on women’s roles, transforming personal history into wearable narratives and emotional architectures.
She works with metalsmithing, enameling, and ceramics to create sculptural objects that explore care, resistance, and identity. Her pieces move between tenderness and strength, intimacy and tension.
Olivia holds an MFA in Studio Arts from Syracuse University and a BFA in Jewelry and Metals from UMass Dartmouth. She currently lives and works in Massachusetts.
