
Qiang LI
Modern Artist. Jiangsu, China.
Li Qiang is a contemporary visual artist who lives and works in New York.
Li's artistic endeavors include engraving painting, sculpture, imaging, performance art, and installation art. He started to create “book tearing” works in 2009 by using magazines and books as the medium to express the uncertainty and vulnerability of the current era through the destructive behavior of “tearing”. As a part of the works, the torn pieces became scenes of action. From “traces of land” to “cultural texture”, the artist has been practicing the art for over 20 years.
Li's major works include “Each Tree Branch Connects with Another Branch” in 2021, “Under the Surface” in 2020, “Why Is News Always Black and White?” in 2019, “Sea Water” in 2018, “Library Plan” in 2016, “You Know” in 2015, etc.
"In this era of the internet, magazines are outdated but they are also rebellious entities.
I am an artist who uses magazines and books as the medium to create installation art works. I use the information and colors of the magazines to express the vulnerability and uncertainty of the current world through the destructive behavior of “tearing”. Meanwhile, I establish a physical interlocking relationship between the images as well as the thickness and appearance of the magazines. The works are stacks of magazines. A face is like a stack of old magazines that require the audience’s imagination and emotions to be meaningful.
If Michelangelo’s art is to sculpt a “human” image from stones, then my art is to find the existence of “human” from the ruins of media information. It aims to seek traces of humanism from the obscured and forgotten history, while paying attention to the reality intentionally hidden by power and capital. When images in news media become mosaic, art is a call that does not require specific content, but emphasizes the urgency."
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2024: "Body Resurrection" at Cornerstone Arts Center, New York
2019: "Why Is the News Always Black and White" at Arles Photography Festival, Xiamen
2018: "Reflections of the Danube" in Budapest, Hungary
2017: "I Tear the World into Pieces and Reassemble It in Your Image" at Beijing Zhuanzhuan Hui
2017: "The Apocalypse of Flesh" at 798 YUE Art Museum
2016: "Library Project Series" at Keshan Gallery, New York, USA
2014: "God's Debris" at 798 YUE Art Museum, Beijing
2007: "100 Middle School Students' Mobile Diaries" at Zendai Art Museum, Shanghai
2002: "Doll's House" at Shanghai Top Floor
1999: "Li Qiang Modern Print Exhibition" at Beijing International Arts and Crafts Center
1993: "Li Qiang Print Exhibition" in Nanjing Arts
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2024: "Rootless Tree" in "Emitting Light" at Asian Heritage Month Exhibition, New York Institute of Technology
2023: "Sorrowful Madonna Again" in "Breaking News" Exhibition, New York
2021: "Every Trunk Can Lead to Another Trunk" at "Chengdu Biennale" at Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum
2020: "Under the Skin" in "The Endless Flow - Narrative of the Yellow River" at Yinchuan Contemporary Art Museum
2019: "Sichuan Image Memory" in Dazhou
2018: "Guang'an Field Biennale" in Guang'an
2017: "Echoes of Civilization: To Ingenuity" at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Jingdezhen
2016: "Library Project" at the 3rd CAFAM Biennale, Central Academy of Fine Arts
2016: "Tear" at China Oil Painting Biennale, China Art Museum
2015: "You Understand" in "The Power of the People" at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum
2013: "You Know" in the Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition "Unpresented Voices" (Parallel Exhibition of the Venice Biennale)
2012: "100 Middle School Students' Mobile Diaries" at Austria International Art Exhibition
2009: "Seeking the Way" at Frederieke Taylor Gallery, USA
2008: "100 Middle School Students' Mobile Diaries" at 798 Art Festival Theme Exhibition, Beijing
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