SHILI-HIHEY ART SHOW

Online exhibition: March 02 — March 31, 2014

Offline exhibition: March 02 — April 30, 2014

Venue: HIHEY Arts Center

Address: No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Beijing, China

Special auction time: 10:00 — 22:00, March 15, 2014

Exclusive interview with HIHEY Shi Li.

HIHEY: Please introduce about your works in this exhibition and what’s your inspiration for creating them?

Shi Li: The works in this exhibition include four series: The Other Shore Flower, Ode to Joy, Everyone Has a Star Sign, The Waning Moon of Xiaofeng. They were created between 2013 and 2014, actually I began considering the other shore flower series of works in 2012.

The finer things is not easy to meet, it is easy to be broken instead, and it will disappear in an instant. I always want to keep what I find the most beautiful and brilliant. There is always a primal impulse and desire in my heart.

HIHEY: Thanks. As an artist and poet, how they reflect each other in your work?

Shi Li: In addition to painting, I have been writing poetry. I think these two complement each other. Whether it’s painting or poetry, the most important thing is “emotion,” the real emotion is very important, especially in nowadays. I want both to impress the audience. In my opinion, a poet is the forerunner of an age, is the most sensitive person of the era, is the most eager for freedom and yearning for brightness.

As a seeker of art, I just take these as a goal to guide me forward into my works, painting and poetry are the expression of my feelings and the language of my thoughts. My paintings are infused with poetic imagination, and creating poems often gives me inspiration for painting. They are the unity of poetry and painting and resonate with me and the people who read my works.

HIHEY: What’s your creative philosophy? How do you move from concrete to abstract?

Shi Li: When I was in school, I was exploring and experimenting with abstract things while drawing figurative pictures. One day I suddenly found that the more classical, the more abstract it is. Abstraction is a kind of spirit, which is about the expression of freedom. I learned a lot from Mr. Liu Kongxi’s classical painting course, and I was also influenced by Mr. Shang Yang, my professor in the university.

In a sense, my work is very classical, with the elegance and nobility of classical painting. Use your own hands in the creation, like prehistoric art, medieval piety, impressionist color. What I want is a process, a process of expressing art, not just a result like some “modern art”.

To put it simply, I express my understanding of nature and life, let the natural things into my body, and slowly experience the subtle changes and fusion in my body. Then I will express this interesting and wonderful process with the painting materials I am familiar with to show my relationship with nature. The pursuit of freedom beyond the concrete image, we explore the spiritual world in the image.

Just like there are no identical two leaves in the world, my works can not be copied. It is a sublimation of emotion and a spiritual exploration independent of objects and images.

What I pursue is to melt into nature, a kind of abstract beauty, is “a flower, a world, a leaf, a bodhi”, is the harmony between man and nature, I am either flower or grass, I am anything that changes nature. Like the Monkey King 72 changes, from my painting works, it is not difficult to find and feel poetry which is another wonderful art world. My work is warm, natural and intimate, it becomes more and more abstract because it melt into the invisible road.

HIHEY: You used to draw the “Cruel Youth” series. What is “Cruel” youth like?

Shi Li: My works contain some of my youth, and when I look back, I feel it is slightly bitter, but it is still a beautiful feeling.

Youth is a process of cognition, accumulation, like pupa transform into butterfly, the process is very fragile, but also very key, cruel even. This is a process and state of exploring the world, pursuing the truth, the law of nature and the rapid change of oneself. It is a necessary stage in life. Artists should always maintain this state and the spirit of unremitting exploration.

HIHEY: “The other shore flower, open a thousand years, fall a thousand years, flowers and leaves never meet. Love is not cause and effect, fate is destined to life and death.” What’s your inspiration of the Other Shore Flower series?

Shi Li: I was first moved by the sight of this flower, which evokes sad memories.

With complex flowers to express the complex and beautiful warmth of life, flowing with the fresh and beautiful style of music, the performance of harvest, brilliant quiet beauty, the feelings of the past, like a symphony has a grand inclusive rich connotation.

HIHEY: How did you feel about creating it?

Shi Li: Pain and happiness, like farmers farming the same.

I don’t like the modern flashy impetuous, people always eager to achieve something. I hope to slow down, slow down the soul and the body together, like the ancients on the back of the cattle to enjoy the scenery of the field, too fast will be as rigid as machinery, we humans can not control ourselves but controled by the machine. Thought is the freest, the speed of thinking is faster than light, belief follows my lifetime. I’d like realize this little faith all over my life.

HIHEY: The value of the traditional art market is disorganized, the auction and gallery market is collapsing, and new models such as art e-commerce are emerging. How do you think these models will change the development of artists?

Shi Li: I think the Internet is a promising platform. HIHEY Art Network is a dynamic group, and the trend is good. It should also be an opportunity for artists, which is more competitive with the traditional gallery model. I am very optimistic about this art platform.

HIHEY: Why did you choose the HIHEY ART SHOW artist debut platform for cooperation?

Shi Li: I went to HIHEY in 2012. At that time, it was in a commercial building near Jiuxianqiao. The office was not spacious, and there was no good exhibition space. After more than two years of development, HIHEY’s achievements are there for all to see. A group of young people, dare to challenge the existing art pattern, I’m agree with this idea. HIHEY ART SHOW launched this year is also an opportunity for me to SHOW myself.

Some works:

The other shore flower of four, oil on canvas, 100×80㎝, 2013

Ode to Joy Three, oil on canvas, 60×50㎝, 2014

Every Man Has a Second Star, oil on paper, 52.6× 37.6cm, 2014

“Such as morning dew, the last bitter five”, oil on canvas, 80×60㎝, 2014

“Willow shore, Xiaofeng remnant moon four”, oil on paper, 52.6×37.6㎝, 2013

About the HIHEY ART SHOW:

HIHEY ART SHOW Artist debut program is an innovative promotion platform for artists between artists and the public created by the leading ART e-commerce HIHEY.COM in collaboration with many museums, galleries, brokers, ART funds, collectors and media. Services include physical solo exhibitions, online auctions, media and private exchange services for collectors. We want to use online advantages and expertise and extensive social resources, to promote artists and collectors, media, art institutions, the efficient communication and exchanges between the public and help the artist promotion work and get the market favor, find the ideal partner, get the industry cooperation and mutual assistance between mentors and contribute to the artist, HIHEY.COM will help you take a step on the road to achieving your artistic dreams.