LI Ning's subject matter is inspired by dreams and everyday scenarios, with multiple scenes and characters presented in the same composition. He constructs a bizarre world of unique characters existing in a boundless territory without a definite beginning or end, with multiple actions and narratives happening in an infinite loop of time and space. LI's style fuses with his practice and experience as a tattoo practitioner. He applies delicate lines to form positive and negative space structures, adopting the sensibility and techniques of tattooing in his print works. The format of both mediums is remarkably similar: it is a process of pigment insertion and conversion of inked lines into patterns etched onto human skin and applied to canvas surfaces. His technique is also a form of collage, instead of using ready-made as his source material, he applies his own design patterns, derived from his tattoo practice, in his print works.
