FOCUS ON: Chinese Contemporary Artists – Li Songsong
Li Songsong is a contemporary Chinese painter based in Beijing.
For his artworks he takes information from magazines, newspapers, TV, web, history.
His prominent style of heavily painted express the haziness of memory and the impact of both historic and quotidian imagery.
Li Songsong, Historical Materialism, 2014, oil on canvas, 330 cm x 400 cm x 10 cm (overall), 110 cm x 170 cm (each, 9 pieces) © Li Songsong; Source: PACE Gallery
Li is interested in the way images cultivate histories and provoke memories, even if their relationship or reference to the past is often nebulous and indirect.
The works made by Li Songsong eschew narratives, presenting pieces and traces of something rather than a totalizing record, creating new ways of looking at existing information in which the primary and subordinate visual elements are equally empowered.
Li Songsong, Beihai (II), 2016, oil on canvas, 240 cm × 480 cm × 12 cm (94-1/2″ × 15′ 9″ × 4-3/4″) © Li Songsong; Source: PACE Gallery
Li Songsong, Flying, 2005, oil on aluminum panel, 92.5 cm x 182.5 cm (36-7/16″ x 71-7/8″) © Li Songsong; Source: PACE Gallery
