A mass of cloud: Unveiling the self through intuition and painting.

“I often don’t know how to express my thoughts and feelings in words.”

“I often strive for perfection, both in myself and in my artwork.”

“When confronted with highly subjective artistic creations, I often perceive my work as ‘awkward’.”

“I believe showcasing my work exposes my inner self.”

My oil paintings investigate the self by exploring the relationship between my physical body and state of mind. Inspired by personal experience, I use intuitive methodology to unveil ineffable emotions, memories, and dreams. On canvas, abstract and concrete elements merge, creating a liminal, transitional space that reflects inner turmoil and psychological complexity.

Through complex surfaces and dynamic colour interactions, I investigate tensions between inner and outer worlds, opacity and transparency, completeness and incompleteness. My work explores dualities such as familiarity versus unfamiliarity, deconstruction versus reconstruction, and conscious thought versus unconscious impulses.

 

two oil paintings on wall
Xinzhi Li, ‘Untitled 3’ and ‘Untitled 4’, 2024 [installation view, RMIT University].
Installation of two paintings
Xinzhi Li, ‘Untitled 1’ and ‘Untitled 2’, 2024 [installation view, RMIT University].
A girl is surrounded by ghostly and floating shapes in a painting
Xinzhi Li, ‘Untitled 4’, 2024, oil and synthetic polymer on canvas, 120cm x 90cm.

 

A girl with blurred face
Xinzhi Li, ‘Self Portrait’, 2024, oil on canvas, 61 x 45cm.

 

amorphous shapes
Xinzhi Li, ‘Untitled 3’, 2024, oil and synthetic polymer on canvas, 92 x 92cm.

 

Xinzhi Li, ‘body in the clouds’, 2024 [detail], oil on canvas, 76 x 92cm.
Xinzhi Li