Presentation
“Though painting primarily in oil, he has remained deeply informed by Chinese traditional painting, particularly the Xieyi freehand style of calligraphy, which values rapidity, control, and gesture. His quick, expressive, and purposefully blurred images create a sense of urgency, and the artist has mentioned his interest in Futurism, which also rejected the past in celebration of violence and youth. But Li Tianbing’s images seem less a mimicry of speed and industry. Instead, they desire to hold still a brief moment in rapidly changing world.”
Chinese Contemporary Artist Li Tianbing Fuses Joy with Protest in His New London Exhibition, Artnet
Biography
Li Tianbing explores fiction and reality haunted by selected childhood memories in a suffocating society and charged political setting. Using photographs as a medium to illustrate his reflections on the past and his multicultural experiences, Li layers the present using oil painting in a timeless duality. A common thread in his art would be reflections on loneliness, where it is addressed in a symbolic fashion, which mirror his own personal experience of the one-child policy. This state of confusion engulfs the artist and he loses the frontier between his own authenticity and invention. The interpretation of his work incorporates personal identity and drama in a tale with the infiltration of multicultural factors. His composition interweaves the contrasting themes of China today: East and West, communism and capitalism, ancient culture and modern consumerism.
Born in Guilin, China in 1974, Li Tianbing studied at the Institute of International Relations in Beijing before graduating in 2002 from the Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His solo exhibitions include: L&M Arts Gallery, New York; Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris; Galerie Loft, Beitou; Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich; Galerie Deborah Zafman, Paris. A selection of group exhibitions include: Today Art Museum, Beijing; Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai; National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing, China and Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Spain. The artist currently lives and works in both Beijing and Paris, France.
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015
Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore
2012
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
2011
Hong Kong Art Center
2009
ADAA Show – L&M Arts Gallery, New York
2008
L&M Arts Gallery, New York
2007
Galerie Albert Benamou
Galerie Loft
Espace 1789, Saint-Ouen, France
2006
Beizitou, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich
Galerie Deborah Zafman, Paris
Brand New Works, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2005
Musée de Gajac, Villeneuve, F
Galerie Loft, Barcelone
Galerie Loft, Paris
2004
Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris
Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
2002
Galerie Donzévansaanen, Lausanne
2000
Musée Marzelles, Marmande
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018
“Sea of Desire”, Fondation Carmignac, Ile de Porquerolles, France
2016
Us is them – the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio
Chinese Whispers, recent art from the Sigg Collection – Museum of Fine Arts Bern
2015
“Who’s afraid of picture”, l’Ecole supérieure d’art et design de Grenoble, France
Dusk to Dusk: Unsettled, Unraveled, Unread – Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
2014
“Mind-Beating”， China Millennium Monument – Contemporary Art Museum, Beijing
2013
“Mind-Beating”, the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice
Biennale d’Issy, Musee de la Carte a Jouer, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
2011
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM)
2008
Art Basel Miami – L&M Arts
Art Basel – L&M Arts
Du vent dans les branches, Art Senat 2008, Paris
Sport in art – Today Art Museum, Beijing
2007
Musuem of Contemporary Art, Shanghai
National Museum of Fine Arts, Beijing