Zhou Li creates paintings, sculptures, installations and public art using mixed media, including oil paint, washes of ink, charcoal and cotton cloth. Her lyrical abstract paintings capture her acute sensory observations of the world: lightness and shadow, solidity and dissolution, the sense of being. Building upon the history of European painting and the central tenets of traditional Chinese art (Qiyun, or atmosphere; brush stroke; colour and structural arrangement), Zhou Li harnesses both traditions to develop a distinct painterly language. Her free-flowing charcoal lines intersect with circles of paint in a gauzy, gossamer palette; these delicate, layered forms appear to float in space and follow a complex compositional arrangement that extends beyond the surface of the painting. Her paintings looks towards nature as a starting point, particularly the mountainous terrains of Southern China, but are imbued with a sense of much more: every brush stroke on the canvas is driven by her persistent query and pursuit of being.
Zhou Li lives and works in China.
Zhou Li
Landscape of nowhere: Water and dreams No.1, 2022
mixed media on canvas
250 x 600 cm / 98.4 x 236.2 in
Zhou Li
The Peach Blossom Spring-Garden No. 21, 2023
mixed media on canvas
180 x 180 cm / 70.9 x 70.9 in
Zhou Li
Landscape of nowhere: Water and dreams NO.11, 2022
mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm / 78.7 x 118.1 in
Zhou Li
Night-Landscape of nowhere: Water and dreams No.1, 2024
mixed media on canvas
260 x 190 cm / 102.4 x 74.8 in
Zhou Li
Landscape of nowhere: Water and dreams No.1, 2022
mixed media on canvas
250 x 600 cm / 98.4 x 236.2 in
Zhou Li
Landscape of nowhere: Water and dreams No.6, 2022
mixed media on canvas
160 x 130 cm / 63 x 51.2 in
Zhou Li
Wind and Thunder No.9 /《心原—蓝 之九》, 2018
mixed media on canvas
180 x 180 cm / 70.9 x 70.9 in
Zhou Li
La Bleu J'adoré NO.9-Nature /《致挚爱的蓝》之九-自然, 2020
mixed media on canvas
200 x 200 cm / 78.7 x 78.7 in
Zhou Li
La Bleu J'adoré NO.10-Nature /《致挚爱的蓝》之十-自然, 2020
mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm / 78.7 x 118.1 in
Zhou Li
La Bleu J'adoré NO.7-Nature / 《致挚爱的蓝》之七-自然, 2019
mixed media on canvas
200 x 200 cm / 78.7 x 78.7 in
Zhou Li
La Bleu J'adoré NO.6- People / 《致挚爱的蓝》之六-人文, 2019
mixed media on canvas
200 x 300 cm / 78.7 x 118.1 in
Zhou Li’s recent solo exhibitions include Rose of Light, Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (13 January – 13 March 2024); Water and Dreams, Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence and Kerlin Gallery; Tracing Peach Blossom Spring, Pingshan Art Museum, Shenzhen, China (all 2022); Lost in Green: Zhou Li, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2020); Original State of Mind, White Cube, London (2019); The Ring of Life, Hive Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing and Shadow of the Wind, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (both 2017). Recent group exhibitions include Greater Than Abstraction, Bund Art Center, Shanghai; the 9th BiCity Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, Shenzhen (both 2022); The Clouded Peach Blossom Spring, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2019); The world is yours, as well as ours, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London (2016); Too Loud a Solitude, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (both 2016); and From West to East, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015). In 2024, Hatje Cantz will publish a new three-volume artist book on Zhou Li, featuring texts in English, French and Chinese by Fiona He, He Xiao, Lu Mingjun, Sue Rainsford, Xu Sheng and the artist herself.
Zhou Li
Lost in Green, 2020
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
Zhou Li
The Ring of Life, 2017
Hive Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Zhou Li
Shadow of the Wind, 2017
Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China
Zhou Li
Too Loud a Solitude, 2016
Hive Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Zhou Li
From West to East, 2015
56th Venice Biennale, Italy
Zhou Li
Catch, 2013
OCAT Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China
Zhou Li's solo exhibition Rose of Light will open at Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning on 13 January.
Artists: Chen Wenji, Chen Yufan, Ding Yi, Huang Yuanqing, Liang Quan, Tan Ping, Wang Yi and Zhou Li. Curated by Cui Cancan.
Titled 'Urban Cosmologies', the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture explores ways in which cities can achieve regenerative and balanced development.
L'eau et Le Rêve, or Water and Dreams, is a solo exhibition of paintings by Zhou Li.
Solo project by Zhou Li, responding to Tao Yuanming's The Peach Blossom Spring from the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
