The World of Xiongyi
Paintings by Li Xiongyi
November 16 to 24, 2014
Auditorium, UBC Asian Centre
1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC
Opening Reception: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2:30 - 5:00 PM
Co-organized by: YISHU Initiative of Contemporary Chinese Art Society
& Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, UBC
Hours:
Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm
Sat 12pm - 5pm
Contact: Yanlong Guo  604-7796851
雄伊的世界
-李雄伊油画展
2014年11月16日至24日
不列颠哥伦比亚大学亚洲中心礼堂
加拿大温哥华
开幕茶会：11月16日下午2时30分至5时
由加中当代艺术创进协会与不列颠哥伦比亚大学艺术史、视觉艺术与理论系协同举办
开放时间：
周一至周五：上午9时至下午5时
周六：上午12时至下午5时
联系人：郭彦龙
电话：604-7796851
Foreword
Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
And yet give you illumined freedom.
In love I pay my endless debt to thee
For what thou art.
My love of today finds no home
In the nest deserted by yesterday's love.
-Tagore Fireflies
This is the favourite poem of Li Xiongyi, the oil painter. As a young artist, he creates unique works of innocence and purity, and the animals, people and plants he paints are filled with youthful freedom and imagination. He draws his subjects from his personal life - the flowers he puts on his balcony, the animals he sees from his travels across the world, the toy piglet that accompanies him from childhood to now, the portraits of his relatives and friends. He uses saturated and simple colours to portray his life, and sometimes he doesn't even prime the canvas but colorizes directly. He follows his own rules for drawing, and the direction of his paintbrush follows the patterns of his thoughts; his next steps are always unpredictable. He draws circuitously and wholeheartedly and with the obsession an artist pays to a career of creation. He fully plays the role of a creator and creates a world as clear as a crystal ball, through which we can see his fantastic magic and life experiences.
Xiongyi has been interested in painting from a young age and was scribbling on paper, walls and even glass when he was three or four years old. At around seven, his parents moved to Beijing and there he continued his dream of painting. Both the rented apartment and his father's office became his studio. Passionate about art, he put all his energy and time into painting. Xiongyi immersed himself in his imagination and felt indifferent about real life, which has resulted in the extraordinary innocence of his paintings and limited interaction with the world outside. As a child he was slow in speech and communication with others caused him difficulty. As a result, he disliked speaking and locked himself in his own idealistic art world. Compared to his peers, Xiongyi is more clumsy than clever, more sincere than vain. His innocent personality has made him concentrate more on the feelings and details of daily life. A flower, a telephone, a toy, a tree, a cloud or a bird… all are presented vividly, through his discovery of new paths and the ways he highlights the originality of everyday objects.
Because of his unique talent in art and his unhappy experiences at school, Xiongyi left off study after graduating from middle school and began to absorb himself in his creations. His chaotic childhood has been transformed into one of tranquility and simplicity. His understanding and supportive parents have provided him with a warm, loving home and the kindness, patience and enlightened attitudes of his painting and private teachers have taught him to master his own extraordinary abilities and enabled him to take control of his life. This atmosphere has allowed him to create under absolutely free conditions.
Without the pressure and angst of entering secondary school, Xiongyi's imagination began to flourish. Because he is unable to express his abundant ideas and thoughts fluently, he resorts to painting. He carefully details his simple and happy life and pays little attention to others' views and whether his work is similar in form. He can translate a master's work into his own style and expose unusual but wonderful thinking in normal painting. He absolutely insists on his belief in art and is seldom affected by outside influences. He draws almost by feeling so he can't explain the intentions and purpose behind his creations. For Xiongyi, painting is a natural way to expose the emotions, from childhood to old age. He never painstakingly creates anything and his painting process can be frightening in its lack of predictability, yet the completed work is surprisingly brilliant.
Similar to the short poem Xiongyi likes the most, he's neither the sun nor the moon and has no intention to compete with them, but in his small and tidy world he is happier than anyone else. In this era of thriving art markets, bright stars, promising elites, debating art forums and tense auction sales, a young man who stays at home to draw silently is rarely noticed. He has little worldly wisdom and is not eager for fame. He finds himself at the centre of a hurricane and stays calm, regardless of the great changes surrounding him. Compared to many modern artists, his perseverance and concentration on the ideal is similar to 20th century artists such as Van Gogh who fought against destiny, Gauguin who abandoned his belongings to live in seclusion on a small South Pacific island or Cezanne who seldom went out and had few friends. These artists cared about little but living for their art.
In this era of glaring art stars, when we set aside anxieties, and ambitions, we can find a pure land where an innocent and unassuming artist has made fantastic works that surprise us. We say that not because we want to take part in a star-producing campaign nor do we want to make any irrelevant explanations, but to introduce the wonder of a truly gifted artist. Maybe Xiongyi is just a tiny firefly now, but he has begun using his brilliance to illuminate his future and his stories that lead us into his world of art.