The Artsy Vanguard 2023: Li Hei Di
By Arun Kakar
In “Oscillating Womb,” Li Hei Di’s new solo show at Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, limbs, torsos, and fauna intermingle, fizzing and crackling in swirls of deep color and luminescent light. In a style that is neither figurative nor abstract, the Chinese, London-based artist captures the ephemerality of desire, encounter, and connection through painting.
Take Adulterated Wind & Unmowed Grass (2023), for instance, where spectral strands twist and cling within thickened murky magenta, crimson, emerald, navy, and neon yellow hues. Sparkles of light emerge and cut through these translucent layers, unspooling the canvas in the throes of simultaneous motion and repression. Within the organic and aqueous, a distinctively human intensity is rendered, at once deeply personal and strangely enigmatic. These are the knotty, ensnared feelings that Li’s works evoke so acutely.
“A lot of my work has to do with physical interaction or just the emotional entanglements in life, and how the human relationship is hidden almost into layers, like a landscape of abstract lights,” Li told Artsy from their studio in Roman Road, East London. Known for its market that has operated for more than 150 years, the area is a melting pot of the international cultures and citizens that make up present-day East London. In many ways, the neighborhood reflects Li’s practice, inspired and influenced by both the artist’s homeland and their international upbringing.
Born in 1997 in Shenyang, in northeast China, Li grew up partially in the U.S. and earned their BFA in painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2018. In 2020, they moved to London and completed a BA in fine art at Chelsea College of Arts; two years later, they earned an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art. It was in their move to the U.K. that the artist began to stray from a strictly figurative style, shifting towards the more exploratory inklings that now represent their current practice.
“The freedom that the British schools offered, it’s very anxiety triggering, but I think it’s needed because you really become an artist,” Li told Artsy. “It’s the constant theme of ‘Why should I make [art]?’ and I think it is necessary to learn that you have this desire that must come from you, not from what other people tell you to do.”
With this realization also came the transformation of Li’s practice. At Chelsea, they explored performance and sculpture, before revisiting painting anew at the Royal College. It was a journey that would prove necessary for their practice. “I had to unlearn a lot of things that I was taught traditionally about painting,” they recalled.
In Li’s studio, paintings at different stages of completion hang on and lean against the walls. Several works are surrounded by a mishmash of referential material from books, films, and fellow artists. Clippings from films in particular are prominent, with stills from various scenes throughout.
For example, Li cited Tsui Hark’s Green Snake (1993) as a key influence for the new works on view at Michael Kohn Gallery. Based on a traditional Chinese legend, the film is about a snake that assumes human form and disrupts the romance between her reptilian sister and her partner. There’s a clear connection to be found both tonally in the film’s earthy palette, and thematically with its challenging of romantic conventions.
“There are many layers of reality that I hope the viewers can look for, and then there are emotions, people, and experiences that you can and cannot see,” Li said. Other points of reference they cited include Swordsman II (1992), directed by Ching Siu-Tung, and Swordsman III(1993), directed by Ching Siu-Tung and Raymond Lee. The films are about a man (played by a female actress: Brigitte Lin) who castrates himself to gain new powers and falls in love with Jet Li’s male character as well as a female character (Rosamund Kwan). All three films explore gender fluidity with poignancy as well as the spectacle that is characteristic of Wuxia martial arts films, which feature the warriors of ancient China. For the artist, the films’ essential ambiguity is mirrored in their approach to painting.
“I paint because I want to create a cinematic experience, to almost tell a story,” they said. “I want to capture a feeling of a mysterious hidden plot, like something that you have to look for through the painting.”
Books, too, are a source of inspiration. The artist mentions writers Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, and Virginia Woolf as recent influences. “These kinds of stories, as well as my personal life and personal experience, make me want to create spaces,” Li said. They also look to the autofiction of Maggie Nelson, which ties together the personal and political through the lens of desire.
The depth and connectedness of these various references are perhaps reflected in the artist’s painting process. “I think it’s this unsatisfiedness of painting that you always want it to be something more, as a way to seek truth almost,” they said. “You’re unearthing things through overpainting.”
Untangling this density of paint and meaning is partly what drew Joshua Friedman, a partner and director at Michael Kohn Gallery, to Li’s work. “Once you submerge into Hei Di’s work the subtext begins to reveal itself and there’s something playful and raw lurking beneath,” he said.
“I was drawn in by Hei Di’s use of sinuous forms; the work contains a quality that merits close attention,” Friedman recalled. “Each work is powerful in its own right, but as a collective the exhibition transcends into a cohesive look into the artist’s state of mind,” he noted of this latest body of work. “Expansive and focused, and colorfully synchronized, the work offers a dream of a world in flux—an ecstatic vision rendered fluid and free.”
The show also marks the latest chapter in what has been a swift rise for the artist, one that shows no sign of slowing. In 2022—the same year they completed their MA—Li’s work was featured in a string of seven group shows, from Downs & Ross in New York to Public Gallery in London. They also had their first solo exhibition, “Tits at Dawn,” at Linseed Projects in Shanghai. This year has followed a similar trajectory, with the artist’s work appearing in group shows at Gagosian in Hong Kong, Galerie Marguo in Paris, the X Museum Triennial in Beijing, and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London.
Though Li is just shy of 26, their work can already be found in collections including the Long Museum in Shanghai and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. After the show at Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, which runs until January 6, 2024, they will have another solo exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth next year.
The artist describes the past few years as “extremely anxious to the point that [it’s] almost euphoric.” This busyness, while intense, helps to concentrate their practice. “I really enjoyed having to have this level of focus to keep making a body of work,” they said. “I really think I grew a lot over the years. And I think I really survived all these deadlines.”
As they move from one show to preparing for the next, the artist remains absorbed in their practice. Painting—both the act and the actualization—remains a mystery that isn’t just important, but necessary, too.
“I think it’s therapeutic in a way because I don’t really know what I’m actually experiencing emotionally,” they said. “There are things I can’t put into words that I almost have to paint.”