Peng Li
MOVING COLORS
Peng Li’s paintings are rather abstract. He uses mostly acrylic, pastel or pencil, which he applies with gestural movements onto canvas and paper. Sometimes he uses just one colour, while at other times he layers several on top of each other. Needless to say, each painting is entirely unique. But, what they all have in common is the movement at the heart of each piece. In some of his works the colours seem to be dragged by an invisible hand from one side to the other; in others they spontaneously flow to the bottom of the canvas. It’s the interplay between controlled and free movement that is so interesting about his work and intrigues the spectator to step closer and dive into it.
FOUND OBJECTS AND DIGITAL CODES
Besides experimenting with the medium of painting, Peng Li also creates small sculptures and public installations out of found objects. For his soon to be realised installation 9m2 of Powers and Games he places two canvases – each of them being three metres high and three metres wide –, in front of Munich’s State Collections of Antiquities. After covering them in black oil paint, visitors of the Königsplatz are asked to collect rubbish from the close-by area and throw it on the canvas. Due to the slow drying paint, the objects cling to the surface and a monumental composition is born. In this installation, Peng Li encourages the act of throwing, whereby each object that makes it to the canvas holds a physical memory, one containing a certain emotional process.
Peng Li also devotes himself with great interest to the digital image as in Du wirst bald sehr schöne Reiseerlebnisse haben – No. 1974 (engl.: You will have nice travel experiences soon). What resembles a sky full of stars was not painted but created by a programmed code. The code is infinitely adaptable and produces a completely different composition for each C-Print.
Text by Giulia Bernardi
Biography Peng Li
born 1986 in Hunan, China
lives and works in Munich, Germany
Education
since 2016 Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany / Painting and Graphics, Class Prof. Gregor Hildebrandt
2008-2011 Master of Fine Arts at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
2004-2008 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, at South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Exhibitions (selection)
2020
Annual Exhibition Academy of Fine Arts Munich, MUCCA, Munich, Germany
2018
Resonanz – Junge chinesische Künstler in Deutschland (Young Chinese Artists in Germany), Kunstraum Villa Friede, Bonn, Germany
Wir schwimmen alle im gleichen Wasser, Class Gregor Hildebrandt, Pasinger Fabrik München, Munich, Germany
Scholarships
2018 Scholarship for foreign students of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany
Works by Peng Li
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Ohne Titel
2021 / Acrylic paint on magazine / 30 x 32 cm / 11.8 x 12.6 in (framed)
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Ohne Titel
2021 / Acrylic paint on magazine / 33 x 44 cm / 13.0 x 17.3 in (framed)
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Sparkle
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 38 x 78 cm / 15.0 x 30.7 in (framed)
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sold
Donut
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 42 x 32 cm / 16.5 x 12.6 in (framed)
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Circle
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 47 x 47 cm / 18.5 x 18.5 in (framed)
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Lines
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 41 x 32 cm / 16.1 x 12.6 in (framed)
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Rindfleisch
2021 / Acrylic paint / 26 x 17 cm / 10.2 x 6.7 in (framed)
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Bio Trauben
2021 / Acrylic paint / 26 x 15 cm / 10.2 x 5.9 in (framed)
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Ohne Titel
2021 / Acrylic paint on magazine / 29 x 31 cm / 11.4 x 12.2 in (framed)
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sold
Ohne Titel
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 37 x 35 cm / 14.6 x 13.8 in (framed)
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sold
M
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 43.5 x 36 cm / 17.1 x 14.2 in (framed)
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sold
Ohne Titel
2015 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 43.5 x 36 cm / 17.1 x 14.2 in (framed)
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Am Meer
2016 / Oil pastel, pencil on paper / 43.5 x 36 cm / 17.1 x 14.2 in (framed)
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Ohne Titel
2017 / Acrylic on paper / 53.5 x 40 cm / 21.1 x 15.7 in (framed)
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sold
Ohne Titel
2018 / Acrylic on canvas / 93 x 54 cm / 36.6 x 21.3 in
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Du wirst bald sehr schöne Reiseerlebnisse haben – No. 1974
2019 / C-Print / 150 x 150 cm / 59.1 x 59.1 in (framed)