In-Between Gallery centers on the original IP Ms. Leopard, which is an original art IP in continuous development, centered on a white-haired, golden-eyed woman who is the incarnation of a snow leopard. Ms.Leopard possesses both the acumen and elegance of a human, while retaining the autonomy and spirituality of a beast. She wanders through a mythical realm composed of abandoned Jiangnan gardens, Eastern artifacts, and the cyclical time of the Chinese zodiac, affirming that "I, in this place and at this moment, am authentic." Rooted in Jiangnan architectural heritage and existential philosophy, the project traverses overgrown ruined gardens, fantasy flora, and antique artifacts to balance reality and illusion.

The project currently encompasses dual evolving subseries—Zodiac (Chinese New Year illustrations), and Whisper of Gardens (inspired by Jiangnan Gardens)—from which have emerged an ongoing non-linear narrative zine experiment, The Folded Garden, and a planned zine collection, The Nine-Treasure Curio Shelf. The 2026 solo exhibition Green Field Illusion: Ms.Leopard’s Eastern Wandering presented the project's achievements to date.

• Zodiac: The Cyclical Markers of Time
  

An ongoing annual tradition created for Lunar New Year celebrations. Independent of the garden setting, this series places Ms. Leopard within vibrant, festival-themed allegories, reinterpreting Eastern zodiac mythology through a modern feminine lens.

• Whisper of Gardens: Between Ruin and Overgrowth
  

The flagship painting series focusing on spatial liminality. Ms. Leopard interacts with the intricate framing, carved stone, and fluid nature of classic Jiangnan gardens, exploring the quiet boundary between architectural containment and interior freedom.

Methodology

• World Building: Constructing a cohesive, self-contained visual mythos centered around the original IP Ms. Leopard.
  

Ms. Leopard is not an isolated character design but the nucleus of a complete system of meaning. I have systematically established her species identity (incarnated snow leopard), visual codes (green leopard-print qipao, white hair, golden eyes, bare feet), spatial field (abandoned Jiangnan gardens), temporal rhythm (the zodiac cycle), and recurring motifs (rabbits, umbrellas, Chinese artifacts). These settings were not completed at once, but generated, revised, and deepened over years of continuous creation. Each new painting, exhibition, or zine experiment uncovers a previously unilluminated corner of this established world. World-building expands my practice from "image-making" to "the construction of an inhabitable universe of meaning."

• Site-Specific Research: The creation of the Garden of Whispers sub-series began with fieldwork visits to Jiangnan gardens.

I paid particular attention to a group of lesser-known gardens in Changzhou whose names share a philosophy of humble restraint—Jin Yuan (Nearly a Garden), Yue Yuan (Approximately a Garden), Wei Yuan (Not Yet a Garden), Ban Yuan (Half a Garden), Yi Yuan (Intended as a Garden), Liao Yuan (Merely a Garden). Their names embody an existentialist gesture: an acknowledgment of incompleteness, an acceptance of process. I have internalized this "unfinished" garden philosophy as the aesthetic keynote of Ms. Leopard's world—overgrown yet not decayed, lush yet not manicured—where everything remains in the act of becoming. Site-specific research is not merely the collection of visual material, but the distillation and translation of the spiritual core of a particular cultural space.

• Feminist Spatial Phenomenology: Applying Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of Situation (Être-en-situation) and the concept of L'Entre-deux (the In-Between) to investigate female bodily agency within spatial architecture.
  

Focusing on the flagship painting series Whisper of Gardens, this method deconstructs traditional passive female spectatorship. Ms. Leopard navigates through latticed windows, taihu stones, and garden thresholds not as an object of the gaze, but as an active subject defining her own spatial sanctuary.

• Material Thinking & Cross-Media Craft Inquiry: Grounded in the tactile materiality of physical media to counter contemporary digital disembodiment.

In summer 2026, I conducted a 10-day material experiment residency in Jingdezhen, working with ceramics and glass. The aim was to release the Ms. Leopard IP from 2D surfaces and explore the possibilities of Eastern artifact language in 3D space. The glaze variations and firing unpredictability of ceramics, and the fluidity, translucency, and fragility of glass, were not outcomes I fully "designed" but were co-generated through dialogue with the materials. I continued my consistent method of "non-predetermined creation"—not locking in final forms in advance, but seeking serendipitous poetry within the shrinkage, kiln changes, flow, and solidification of matter.
Material thinking allows me to translate the "objects" of the mythical realm from image language into tactile material language, laying a technical foundation for the planned Nine-Treasure Cabinet zine collection. By translating visual motifs across paint, paper, clay, and glass, this inquiry examines how different physical textures evoke distinct sensory and emotional resonance.

︎Ceramic

︎Pâte de verre

Featured Artifacts —— Artist Zines & Tactile Objects 

Narrative Experiments —— Artist Zines

• Artist Zine 《窥一斑而知全豹》 (The Folded Garden)

This work is a non-linear narrative zine experiment built around a single question: what does it mean to see only a part, and to know that you can never see the whole? The zine takes the form of a cube. The interior of the cube is not a fully mirrored chamber. Only the bottom face is a mirror, functioning as the surface of the lotus pond. Other interior surfaces are partially cut away or left solid as structural supports. When the viewer finally opens the cube and looks down, they do not find an answer—they see their own face reflected in the still water of the pond, among the lotus leaves. The journey ends not with the image of Ms. Leopard, but with the viewer themselves, looking back from the water.

Currently, the project exists as a single large-scale painting—the key visual prototype—and a series of structural sketches for the cube. The next stage is to produce a working paper model and test how the mirrored pond interacts with the cut-out spaces in real space.

• Artist Zine 《九宝博古架》 (The Nine-Treasure Cabinet)

This planned zine collection takes the form of a traditional Chinese curio cabinet divided into nine compartments. Each compartment will hold a small hand-made zine, and each zine will be attached to the back of a removable object—an artifact such as an incense burner, a coral bonsai, a lacquer box, or a fragment of the body. The objects and zines can be lifted out, rearranged, and placed back, inviting the viewer to become a co-author of the sequence.

The project draws on the ancient Chinese motif of “a world within a pot”—the idea that a miniature space can contain an entire universe. At the same time, it engages with the feminist critique of the male gaze: the viewer is no longer a fixed subject looking at a passive female body, but an active participant who must touch, choose, and reorder. The structure itself questions the traditional position of seeing and being seen.

At present, the project exists as a layout sketch for the nine compartments and a set of material experiments in ceramic and glass made in Jingdezhen. These early tests explore whether the “treasures” can be physically produced as tactile objects rather than simply illustrated.

Tactile Craft Explorations (Jingdezhen Residency)

Completed during an intensive craft residency in Jingdezhen (August 2026), this collection expands the universe of Ms. Leopard from 2D planes and folded paper into durable, three-dimensional tactile media.

• Ceramic
  

These experiments are ongoing. More to come.

• Pâte de verre

Rooted in the worldview of my original IP Ms. Leopard, this glass series was conceived from the initial shaping stage with an emphasis on vertical stacking. Each component was designed to rest upon the one below, forming a cohesive sculptural arrangement.
🏡 The base is a small house-shaped fruit dish, holding a large flowering tree, a tiny broccoli, and a heart-shaped leopard.
🐰Above it sits a white rabbit high-stemmed cup, 🌠followed by a star-shaped splash dish with a raised rim that cradles the next element.
🌸The upper section was initially intended as a girl's-profile flower cup, but after running short on glass material, it was ground down into a footed flower cup.
🔥Crowning the composition is a flame leopard with a butterfly on its chest.

From July 24 to September 23, 2026, the solo exhibition In-Between Gallery presented the achievements to date of Ms. Leopard. The exhibition constructed an immersive entrance to an Eastern mythical realm through a green-toned palette.

︎Exhibition Message

Ms. Leopard wanders through an Eastern mythical realm, searching for the equilibrium between the real and the imagined. Mountains and waters whisper silently across time; the cycling zodiac connects space with memory. 
I transform black-and-white photographs into paintings of Eastern secret realms, drawing you, the viewer paused before the canvas, into the crevices of time, to listen to the murmurs of still objects. 
All things possess spirit—may my work inspire your understanding of life, and may you grow with full vitality.

These recognitions, from different curatorial perspectives, mark the ongoing growth of the Ms. Leopard IP in the field of visual narrative.

• CIB China Illustration Biennale · Bronze Award

• Hiii Illustration Award · Merit Award

• BIBF International Illustration Exhibition · Finalist