Li Ziran

1986 Born in Changle, Fujian Province

2012 Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Art Institute with a bachelor´s degree

2017 Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Art Institute with a master´s degree

Currently works and lives in Chongqing

GROUP EXHIBITION

2017

2017 Art Nova 100, Beijing, China

Reciprocal Enlightenment - The 3^rd College Experimental Art Literature Exhibition, CAFA , Beijing, China

The 5^th Tomorrow Contemporary Sculpture Awards 2017, Luo Zhongli Art Museum, Chongqing, China

2015

Evolution & Co-presence - Chinese New Reality Painting, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy

Ten Years - “Caesar Rising Arting” Annual Nomination Exhibition for Students of Star, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2014

The 4^th Zhang Xiaogang prize in contemporary art creation, CAEA Museum, Chongqing, China

2012

The Boat of 2012 - Aussino CUP Annual Nomination Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

Luo Zhongli Scholarship Exhibition, Chongqing Museum of Art, Chongqing, China

Li Ziran: I starting painting in earnest at the beginning of 2013. Intuitive painting’s immediacy and the pleasure it brings caused me to feel drawn to painting. I enjoy the process of structuring a canvas, and believe that a painting is gradually formed through this process of accumulation. Thus, I will not pre-define where a painting should end, I also do not allow myself to become so absorbed in stream-of-consciousness creativity as to lose my lucid mind. Since I have for a long time been interested in video and installation works, I have come to incorporate ways of thinking employed in those genres into my painting works. My paintings no longer speak with a clearly stated narrative. On the contrary, I hope they speak in hushed whispers. I think art should be made for the purpose of continuous output of individual creativity, rather than to express love for a certain media or material, or to constantly repeat certain existing symbols.

李子然的作品带有强烈的压迫感和紧张感。他的工作方式是基于从小对积木对玩具模型拼接的乐趣，并在艺术创作中延续了拼接模型的方法，对于各种材质的运用会还原到整个作品中去思考其发挥的作用及可能性，它可以有不同的状态去呈现。据艺术家李子然介绍，《神奇的合影》这件作品取之于朋友在展览现场有幸与作者合影，并发布于网络中，这体现了当下人们的生活状态，对生活中细小事情充满了期待，很希望身边的人发生一些不可思议的事情，是对枯燥生活进行强大的解压，反应了紧张压抑的社会关系。——宁佳（四川美术学院教师）

Li Ziran’s works convey a strong sense of oppression and tension. His method of creation stems from his love of assembling building blocks when he was a child, and his current work can be seen as a continuation of this assembly of models. He considers the overall effect on the work in each choice of materials and how to use them, allowing him to convey a variety of states.  According to the artist Li Ziran, the work titled “Magic Photo” is based on a picture that was taken of the artist with a friend at an exhibition and then published on the Internet. This reflects the current state of people's lives, always looking forward to the small things in life, hoping unbelievable things will happen to people around us. This serves as a powerful antidote to dull lives, and a way to relieve the stress of relationships in modern society. - Ning Jia (Instructor at Sichuan Fine Art Institute)