Biography
Biography:
Li Ning (b.1994) graduated from Royal College of Art major in painting.
Li is the winner of Still Life Award of Jackson’s Painting Prize 2023. His works have been performed on exhibitions such as RCA Painting Degree Show, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and New English Art Club annual exhibitions at Mall Galleries, Jackson’s Painting Prize exhibition at Bankside Gallery, Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize online exhibition. Meanwhile, his works have been published on media publication such as Aesthetica magazine and have been featured in essay ‘The Art of Li Ning’ by Jonathan Miles (Tutor and Supervisor of PhD, Royal College of Art. Writer.)
Li’s works represent subjects under allegorical and fantastic imagination. His sources of inspiration come from both mythical forms and ordinary objects. Deeply influenced by Renaissance painters such as Titian, Li realized figurative paintings contain infinite possibilities. By embracing Renaissance painters, he develops his own artistic language to depict subjects in a contemporary art construct.
His works manifest allegorical and spiritual meanings beyond subjects’ physical forms. His sensitive observation combined with spiritual imagination gives the work a sense of idiosyncratic temperament.
Artist Statement:
The inspiration of my works comes from both physical and imaginary subjects.
Deeply under the influence of Renaissance masters such as Titian, from technical and spiritual fields, I realized that figurative paintings could carry religious, psychological, metaphysical meanings, and be allegories. The divine quality of Renaissance paintings touched my heart deeply and directly influenced my opinion about what painting is. Therefore, I believe every single painting requires painter to devote full enthusiasm and full diligence into it. “Malherbe, it is said, worked with prodigious slowness: yes, because he worked for immortality.” -- Ingres.
I believe that a painter should look beyond his/her subject. Beyond it means, a painter ought to discover his/her subject’s potential to transcend its physical form. The core is the combination between physical observation and spiritual imagination, as a painter should neither limited by his/her subject nor fall into total ignorance of his/her subject’s natural character.
A painter’s relationship with his painting is familiar to that of an admirer with his lover. If I am allowed to change Russell’s remark a little here: “The muse of art is a cool lover. Only by enthusiastic hands holding the sword of calm, one could possibly touch her heart.”