Install shot from Solo show
Amy Hui Li
Amy Hui Li (b.1997, Guangzhou) is a Chinese artist who lives and works in London. She received an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in the summer 2023 after a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2020. Li is interested in creating self-reflective paintings, both in the traditional way and in the expanded painting field. This visual expression of colour, emotion and language is the key for her to communicate with the audience. Li explores the body through her abstract visual language and the reflective self. Li’s biological forms evoke veins and blood vessels, exploring our hidden emotions as well as processes of self-healing and repairing. Repetitively tearing and reshaping homemade felt materials, Li expresses fragility, brokenness and a drive towards intimacy. Varying in their opacity and texture, her paintings speak of honesty, the exposed self and the brave act of being willing to be vulnerable. Her works seek to spark resonance and challenge the audience to self-reflect and face their inner self. By titling her work only in lowercase, she also expresses a sense of humility.
Notes from Curator
Amy’s paintings represent a bold departure from traditional photography, marking the furthest we’ve ventured from the medium in our selection process. In this way, Amy serves as a catalyst for this year’s theme, which explores the boundaries of what can be considered photographic. Her paintings, for us, evoke photographic film burning through her incorporation of textile elements which allow the works to assume three-dimensional shapes. Her pure use of elemental blues and reds speak to the raw emotive quality of her work.