Li Huayi

Li Huayi (; born 1948) is a contemporary ink artist whose admiration for the monumental landscapes of the Northern Song dynasty with his training in both traditional Chinese ink and Western art, inspired him to create his own style of ink painting.

Li has established a distinct connection between contemporary and traditional, and nature and humanity, by integrating his contemporary perspective with the eternal values of traditional literati painting.

Li Huayi's works are collected by museums worldwide including the British Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Harvard Art Museums, the Brooklyn Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Suzhou Museum, M+ Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Museum of Art. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976), Li was exempt from being sent to the countryside and allowed to remain in Shanghai to paint Soviet-style propaganda murals as a result of his dexterity with brush and ink, and his training in Western art.

The Northern Song School tradition kept looming over Li Huayi. The first Northern Song painting he saw was Fan Kuan's Scene Under Snow, in 1978 at the Beijing Palace Museum. In 1989, Li visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei, where Guo Xi's Early Spring left lasting impressions. Having considered the viewing experience of his audience, Li aimed to produce greater visual impact through the format of a screen. Since 2006, by placing a landscape hanging scroll in front of a backdrop of large, ink-and-brush filled panels, Li creates works of three-dimensional space in the form of installation art. This combination of traditional brush-and-ink painting with a contemporary presentation, suggests Li's innovative approach and opened up the potential of physical space in his art.

Ink on gold or silver leaf Since 2018, Li challenged himself in expanding the boundaries of his gilded series. Instead of applying ink to a gilded background, he first draws his composition on silk fabric and then lays gold leaf on top. Released from the limitations of a gilded background, the artist may alternate between solid and impressionistic ink strokes on silk as much as he wishes. The light of the painting no longer comes from its background, but rather it reflects the light shone upon it. At the same time, the artist begins to incorporate silver leaf, which produces a luminescence akin to moonshine in his paintings.

Recent developments Since the 1990s, Li Huayi has participated in solo and group exhibitions on an international scale at Stanford University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Art Museum of China, and was part of China 5000 Years Exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1999.

In September 2017, his 3-month solo exhibition Fantasies on Paper and Enchantment in Gold was exhibited at the Suzhou Museum in China. The exhibition presented 18 paintings from different periods of Li's artistic endeavor, covering representative works selected from the "Monumental Landscapes series", the "Water Scenes series", the "Multiple Screens Installation series" and the “Gilded Screen Series”, offering audiences a comprehensive understanding of Li's artistic developments over the prior 15 years.

In May 2018, international publisher Rizzoli and Kwai Fung Art Publishing in Hong Kong published a monograph on Li Huayi. The comprehensive publication includes more than 160 works representing each major period from 1993 to 2017, together with insightful art analysis, and provided bird's eye views as well as microscopic details of the artist's work.

In August 2019, the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii hosted a 4-month retrospective exhibition Contemporary Landscapes: Li Huayi for Li Huayi. This exhibition traced the artist's career over three decades, including works never before seen by the public, as well as highlights from various stages of his artistic growth, in formats from hanging scrolls and gold screens to installations.

In November 2021, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery organised Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Recent Works of Li Huayi at F Hall, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, presenting 12 pieces of Li's recent works from 2018 to 2021, showing his mastery in integrating gold foil with sophisticated ink and brushstrokes on silk.

Solo exhibitions

Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Recent Works of Li Huayi, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, F Hall, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, China, 2021 Contemporary Landscapes: Li Huayi, Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, the United States, 2019 Law of Nature, Tao of Man, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China, 2019 Solo Exhibition of Li Huayi, Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China, 2018 Fantasies on Paper and Enchantments in Gold, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China, 2017 Solo Exhibition of Li Huayi, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Art Basel, Hong Kong, China, 2017 Landscapes in New Dimensions, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China, 2017 Exotica, Recent Works of Li Huayi, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China, 2016 Waterfalls, Rocks and Bamboo by Li Huayi, Eskenazi Gallery, London, the United Kingdom, 2014 Images of the Mind: The Ink Painting of Li Huayi, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China, 2011 Beyond Representation: Li Huayi's New Art, Beijing Center for the Arts, Beijing, China, 2011 The Twelve Animals of the Zodiac by Li Huayi, Eskenazi Gallery, London, the United Kingdom, 2011 Trees, Rocks, Mist and Mountains by Li Huayi, Eskenazi Gallery, New York Asia Week, New York, the United States, 2010 Li Huayi at 60: Paintings in the Yiqingzhai Collection, The Ink Society, Hong Kong, China, 2008 Mountain Landscapes by Li Huayi, Eskenazi Gallery, London, the United Kingdom, 2007 The Monumental Landscapes of Li Huayi, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the United States, 2004

Group exhibitions

Longing for Nature: Reading Landscapes in Chinese Art, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland, 2020 Ink Worlds: Contemporary Chinese Painting from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, California, United States, 2018 The Weight of Lightness: Ink Art at M+, M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong, China, 2017 Boundless: Ongoing - Chinese Ink Art 2017, Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China, 2017 Different Paths: Explorations in Ink, S | 2 Sotheby's, New York, the United States, 2017 Shanghai Ever, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China, 2015 Harvard Art Museums-Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Massachusetts, USA Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, USA University of Kansas, Kansas, USA Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China M+, Hong Kong, China Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China

Publications

Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Catalogue Raisonné of the Gilded Works by Li Huayi 2008-2021, Hong Kong, Kwai Fung Art Publishing House: 2022. ISBN 978-988-15623-0-2 KWAI Catherine and FUNG Edward, Li Huayi: Landscapes from a Master’s Heart, Monograph, Milan, Italy: Rizzoli International Publications Inc., First Edition: June 2018 and Hong Kong: Kwai Fung Art Publishing, 2017. . Waterfalls, Rocks and Bamboo by Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, London, UK: Eskenazi, 2014. . Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong, Beijing Center for the Arts Publishing House: 2011. . The Landscapes of Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong, Kaikodo: 1997. . Suzhou Museum, Fantasies on Paper and Enchantments in Gold, Exhibition Catalogue, China: Jiangsu, 2017. SMITH Thomas E., Li Huayi Landscape Paintings (1993-95), Anthology, Hong Kong, Wu's Studio, Artlink: 1996..