Li Jikai 李继开
From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki
Li Jikai is a Chinese painter whose work is considered typical of the Ego Generation. Born in 1972, Li lives in Wuhan and teaches in the Animation Department at the Hubei Academy of Fine Art.
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[edit] Date & Place of Birth
Li was born in 1972 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.
[edit] Education & Development
In 2004, Li earned his Master's degree from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.
[edit] Art
Relative to the Stars Group or Political Pop or Cynical Realism, the Ego Generation exhibits growth at a leaping pace. They have bypassed Cartoon Generation and Scar Art, and now dash directly into an inner world of their own. Li Jikai's work is a prime example. We find hardly any clear links with the earlier generation or his own contemporaries in the rhetoric of his painting. If we take a closer look, we sense the spirit and mind of this young group, the Ego Generation, in the mood of loneliness, confusion, artistic impulse and egocentricity encompassed by Li's work. As if withdrawn from the turbulent outside world, Li becomes a spectator of life, observing this dynamic society with indifference.
This new tendency, with Li Jikai as one of its representatives, no longer pays much attention to the the relationship between art and society or art and politics, but rather prefers to discover the sub-conscious of both artist and viewer. As Li wrote, "when I grew up, we mainly struggled to cope with life, accept arrangement, become who we are now……what I only know is that we seem to be not really the creator or participant of our own life, but rather, a spectator, dazed, isolated from the group, then, time passes by.' In the tradition of the Ego Generation, such attention to oneself is not narcissism, but rather an effort to emphasize subjectivity and the objective world.[1]
In Scrap Landfill, Li depicts a lonely boy standing amongst the trash. The contrast between the small boy and the gigantic scrapheap is overwhelming. The boy is emerged among the mounds of stuff. While in Li's The Bones of a Giant, there are two little boys standing on both ends of a gigantic pile of bones, addressing both life and death. These two images rely on illogical narration, just as a daydream might. In other paintings, such as We Want to Go Afar, A Start for the Sake of End, Li situates the little boy either standing on top of a table or a mushroom, back in reality, whispering his own unspeakable pain. With a natural and naive hand, Li's work doesn't try to pursue the absolute truths of Modernism, nor the cynical attitudes of post-Modernism, but rather analyzes the meaning of being itself, an uncertain conflict between the heart and the outside world.[1]
Li Jikai, Growth Time, Oil on Canvas, 145×185cm.
[edit] Auctions & Acquisitions
Li's work has been sold through both Sotheby's and Christie's.
For Li Jikai's auction record, click here.
[edit] Gallery Affiliations
Li Jikai is represented by many galleries, including Beyond Art Space in Beijing, ChinaSquare in New York, and YU Gallery in Paris.
[edit] Exhibitions
For Li Jikai's full exhibition history, click here.
