Li Weiyi

Weiyi Li was born in Changsha City, China, in 1987. She received a BA from the College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Tongji University (2009), an MFA from Yale College of Art (2012) and a doctorate from the Royal College of Art (2023). Much of her work has been influenced by her decades-long career as a designer and image-maker. She has reflected on the brutalities of the image industry, the efficiencies and delays of image-mediated communication and the question of how we, as creators, can continue to create in a world dominated by increasingly similar digital image tools and fabrications. As she creates art and receives feedback from audiences, she recognizes that art may be the only means by which we can all be united as human beings, for it may be the only place in the world where the power of what is not affirmed and what is misunderstood is still acknowledged. In today’s world, misunderstanding, rather than complete understanding, may be what brings people from different cultures together to create new things.

Education

2015 – 2020 PhD, Royal College of Art, Innovation Design Engineering

2009 – 2012 MFA, Yale University, Graphic Design

2005 – 2009 BFA, Tongji University, Visual Communication Design

Solo Exhibitions

2024 Three in one，Fotografiska, Shanghai, China

The First Parents in Human History, X Contemporary Art, Changsha, China

2023 Create Dangerously, TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China

2022 Associate Image, Jimei×Arles 2022, Three Shadows Xiamen Photography Art Center, Xiamen, China

2021 Guilt, Bar Lumiere & Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Green Blades, The Closer, Beijing, China

2019 Year-end, Hive Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2017 Hive-Becoming XXVIII Weiyi Li: Personal Statement, Hive Center For Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2015 Input, Art Data Lab, Beijing, China

2012 Family Album Project II, Fach & Asendorf Gallery, http://fa-g.org/

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024 Simulacrum Zhilán, X Museum, Shanghai, China

Origin Point, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China

Cartier TRINITY 100 Thematic Exhibition, West Bund Art Center, Shanghai, China

Semi-Manual Era, C-Museum, Beijing, China

The Netherlands, More or Less: Contemporary Architecture, Design, and Digital Culture, Nieuwe

Instituut, Rotterdam, Netherlands (participated as a member of the Tulip Trust group)

Marching Uphill, Ramp Space, Beijing, China

Plato’s Ladder, Sōng Art Center, Beijing, China

2023 Remade Objects, Radiance Center, Beijing, China

Setting Sail: Contemporary Echoes of the Maritime Silk Road, Zhangjiagang Art Museum, Zhangjiagang, China

Next Step, MG Space, Beijing, China

Annual Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art 2022, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China

2023 Creation and Momentum, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Special Invitational Exhibition of Beijing Photo Fair, Yue Art Museum, Beijing, China

The Gentle Become the Bearers: ELLE China 35th Anniversary Special Exhibition, Aurora Museum, Shanghai, China

The Uncanny Valley, Gagosian, Hong Kong, China

2022 Art as a Thoroughfare: 2022 Wuhan Biennale, He Art Museum, Wuhan, China

Annual Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art 2021, Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China

Curatorial Research Fellowship 2023: The Intentional Fallacy, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China

Curatorial Research Fellowship 2023: What Language Can, Cannot, and Its Instabilities, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China

Charm of Metamorphosis, Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, China

Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Hangzhou Museum, Hangzhou, China

Future Departure, Changjiang Art Museum, Taiyuan, China

Wizards, Artisans, and Time Travelers, ONE ART, Hefei, China

A Story Within a Story, Golden Eagle Art Museum, Nanjing, China

The Language of Art, The Game of Artists, OCAT, Shenzhen, China

Setting Sail · New Contemporary, West Coast Art Museum, Qingdao, China

The Common Train — Special Project of Gallery Weekend Beijing Public Sector × Ge Yulu, 798 Art

Center Square, Beijing, China

2021 City Image · Translation, Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, China

Stone to Gold, Small Jewelry Gallery, Beijing, China

The Vessel—Screenings on Wuzhen’s Waterways, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Wuzhen, China

Flight of Time: 9th OCAT Biennale, OCAT, Shenzhen, China

Curiosity without Borders: Mickey Art Exhibition Global Tour, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China

If and Only If, Aranya Art Center, Aranya/Beidaihe, China

Machine Vision, University of Bergen Art Museum, Bergen, Norway

Masterpiece, Qiao Space, Shanghai, China

From Checkers to Complex Systems, Times Art Museum, Chengdu, China