Chen Li (b. 1971, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China) is a dual-master of woodblock printing and oil painting. His paintings were shortlisted by the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition and his woodblock print “Human Buddha” is in the permanent collection of The British Museum where it was displayed as an exceptional example of Modern Chinese art.

After a turbulent youth and a near-fatal accident, Chen Li goes deep inside himself to find the peace, lightness and joy that permeate his works.

“I paint what I feel in my heart. For this I have to face my past, both successes and failures."

Chen Li defines his practice as a constant transformation, a living art. The freedom of Chen Li’s thoughts is echoed in his dynamic flying strokes and the originality of his compositions. He developed his style in conscious isolation from the influences of academia. Pursuing his own concepts and ideas are a key aspect of Chen Li's work and personality.

“Chinese art and Western art have different views about reality. But when I paint, I ignore both man-made and natural rules to create living artistic images. I paint to finish my idea, my hope. Just like writing a love letter, content is the key; what pen you use is not important.”

Born into an artistic family, in Kunming, the capital of China’s remote Yunnan Province, Chen Li grew up surrounded by the avant-garde artists of the post-Cultural Revolution, equally inspired by the works of Bruegel and de Kooning as of Guan Xiu and Zhao Wu-ji.

Inspired by the spectacular landscapes and Buddhist philosophy of Yunnan, Chen Li weaves East and West into a unique visual language that balances harmony, spontaneity, and an interplay of colours and textures.

For his woodblock prints, he works in a rare jueban technique (which translates roughly as “waste-block”) perfected in Yunnan. Also dubbed the "suicide technique", this method leaves no room for error because all colours are printed off a single woodblock, each step carving over the previous one until the woodblock itself is destroyed. Only a single limited edition can be printed because the process cannot be repeated.

Chen Li breathes new life into an existing medium, both in his paintings and woodblock prints, reaching out from within his cultural context in a way that speaks to universal experiences.

Amazingly, despite winning many prizes at the mandatory national art exhibitions in China, Chen Li felt he was not ready to exhibit internationally until he was 46. Since his first solo show with Katrine Levin Galleries in London in 2017, he has been attracting significant attention from public and private sectors. Chen Li continues to live and work in Kunming.