Li Ting Ting is a painter known for her colourful Chinese ink-on-rice-paper monochromes that are figurative, translucent, watery, and loose; they are carefully planned with elegant liquid brushstrokes.
Read MoreThe artist combines traditional Chinese graphic skills with the consumerist subject matter of Pop art—celebrating the newfound wealth and bourgeois culture of 'capitalist' China—but with very restrained colour.
In 2004, Li gained a BFA from the College of Arts, Shanxi Normal University, and an MFA in 2007 from the College of Art, Renmin University of China.
Li Ting Ting is known for her virtuoso skills with large, single-colour ink paintings that render desirable acquisitions owned by the nouveau riche, and within which the paintings themselves are possibly included. Examples include Chandelier (2018), Crown (2016), Violin (2019), Chandelier No.3 (2012), Sofa (2011), and Untitled (2012).
Sometimes her images overlap. With these, the artist attempts a layering of time, striving to 'help to create an unknown, infinite, deep and abundant world.'
Li explains: 'Since 2017, I have been attempting to incorporate a three-dimensional element to my paintings ... The traditional mode of presentation and viewing of Chinese ink painting is being challenged here, allowing space to create its own interpretation.'
Sometimes there are rectangular niches placed into the painted panel or canvas. Works such as Other Place 1 (2018) feature inset wooden carvings, while others such as Emerald Green Accumulated on Spring Mountains (2019) have wooden boxes added to the paintings with their paper-covered surfaces carefully painted.
Li is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Honourable Award, Shanghai Youth Art Exhibition (2007); the Gold Award, Contemporary Art Schools' Students Nominated Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2007); and the Grand Prize, 20th 'New Shape' Art Exhibition, Daegu Art Museum (2006).
Li Ting Ting has participated in both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Echoing Harmony, Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong (2019); A Vista in Blue: Li Ting Ting, Daguan Gallery, Taipei (2018); Time, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai (2018); Scope: Li Ting Ting Solo Exhibition, Ovation Art Space, Beijing (2015).
Group exhibitions include 20/20, Karin Weber Gallery anniversary exhibition, Hong Kong (2019); Art On Paper, Chun Art Museum, Shanghai (2018); Theme Exhibition of China Contemporary Ink Annual Review 2016–2017, Ucity Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2017); What Is Ink?, Beijing East Art Center, Beijing (2017).
Li's work is featured in the collections of the White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney; Shan Art Foundation, Beijing; Today Art Museum, Beijing; and Origo Collection, Switzerland.
John Hurrell | Ocula | 2022
