Studio Gallery is thrilled to host Li Jiaqi’s second major solo exhibition at the gallery, “See and Gain”. In this exhibition, the featured works extended Li’s signature application of vibrant palette, and his whimsical and ingenious collage method, further expanding his distinctive visual lexicon.
Li’s practice playfully appropriates pop culture symbols, while embedding his personal reflections on reality and illusion into broader cultural references. In this presentation, he focuses on the new themes of “mirroring” and “duality,” merging these concepts with pop imagery—such as American comic superheroes and the Evil Queen from “Snow White”—through a witty, irreverent lens.
Through his boundless exploration of visuality and imagery, Li has emerged as one of the most dynamic artists of his generation. In 2024, he gained recognition through exhibitions at Studio Gallery and the Westbund Art Fair, where he presented a series of princess- and prince-themed paintings inspired by Disney animations. These works blend fictional characters with real-life figures and readymade materials. Over the past year, Li has drawn on trompe-l'œil techniques to investigate the interplay between reality, virtuality, simulacra, reflection, and appearance, populating his richly colored canvases with unexpected visual juxtapositions of diverse characters.
Li’s compositions fuse the aesthetics of early-2000s internet culture, graphic design, and 2D comics, aligning with the post-internet art movement while reflecting influences from artists such as Julio Larraz and Michel Majerus.
The exhibition’s title, See and Gain, echoes the slogans or disclaimers that flank commercial advertisements. It alludes to Li’s fascination with the dissonance between perception and reality, while signaling his deeper interrogation of visual culture itself.
In many of the works featured in this exhibition, “dual faces” appear simultaneously—for example, an angel strumming an angel-shaped electric guitar, Superman shaving his beard with a laser while gazing into a mirror, or Narcissus kissing his own reflection in water. Li Jiaqi’s exploration knows no bounds, spanning eras, cultures, and inspirations drawn from film, gaming, and literature, as he persistently questions: What truth does the retina perceive? Can images substitute for reality? Does reality even matter?
Across numerous works, Li demonstrates meticulous realism. Influenced by the vibrant hues of advertising, his precise color pairings imbue his paintings with a distinctly dynamic aesthetic. In works such as Nada Had To Choose (2025), Picasso’s Bread Hand Illusion (2025), and The Principle of Symmetry (2025), he experiments with rendering skin tones using transparent pigments like “Indian Yellow Hue” and “Transparent Red Iron Oxide.” He also boldly incorporates readymade objects and mixed materials directly onto the canvas—an approach informed both by his experience with sculpture and found objects, and his desire to introduce a “third dimension” to the traditionally flat surface of painting.
Alongside his painting practice, Li has sustained an eight-year academic inquiry into printed imagery, urban advertising installations, and visual culture. This research has resulted in projects such as the video essay Effective Ineffectiveness: Facts About Space Collage (2020), the journal article Research of Social Visual Phenomenon: Space Collage (2022), and a university seminar presentation titled Printed Trompe-l'œil: Urban Visual Tricks (2025). These works reflect his ongoing investigation into how visual illusions and collages manipulate perception in both artistic and public spaces.
工作室画廊非常期待为艺术家黎家齐举办其第二个在画廊的重要个展《所见与所得》(See and Gain)。此次展览中的作品延续了黎家齐标志性的明朗色调及诙谐且极具智慧的拼接手法,进一步拓展了他独树一帜的视觉语汇。
黎家齐的创作既戏谑地挪用着流行文化的符号,同时将其个人对真实与虚妄的思考融入更广阔的文化参照中。这一次,他聚焦“镜像”、“双生”等新主题,以诙谐手法将这些概念与其作品中的流行图像结合,包括美漫超人、白雪公主中的毒皇后等形象。
凭借对视觉性与图像性的探索,黎家齐逐渐成为非常具有活力和个人特点的年轻艺术家之一。2024年,他通过工作室画廊的展览及西岸艺博会崭露头角:彼时他以迪士尼动画形象为灵感,融合现实人物与现成品材料,创作了公主与王子主题的系列作品。最近的一年里,他开始汲取“视错觉绘画”(Trompe-l’œil)的精神,探索现实(Reality)、虚拟(Virtuality)、拟像(Simulacrum)、镜像(Reflection)、表象(Appearance)等概念的关联,把丰富的角色形象融入到对这些概念的探索与研究中,并以其独有的幽默与智慧巧妙地呈现在画面中,形成了让人意料不到的视觉组合。
其绘画的构图元素融合千禧时代网络生活的特质,既有平面设计与二维漫画的布局与用色,亦呼应“后互联网艺术”运动的风格,同时可见胡里奥·拉拉兹(Julio Larraz)与米歇尔·马歇温斯(Michel Majerus)等艺术家的影响。
此次的展览标题《所见与所得》让人联想到商品广告旁边的标语或注解,既呼应了黎家齐对现实与表象错位的思考,也暗示着其对视觉文化的深度探索。展览中的大部分作品,都同时出现“两个面孔”。比如弹着天使形状电吉他的天使、对镜用激光给自己剃须的超人、亲吻水中的自己的那喀索斯。黎家齐的探索不局限于古今中外,灵感不局限于电影、游戏、文学。他不断地发问,视网膜之下的真相是什么?图像可以替代真实吗?真实重要吗?
在不少作品中,黎家齐都展现了他细腻的写实能力。受到广告鲜艳颜色的影响,其对色彩的挑剔搭配使其作品整体呈现出独特而具活力的样貌。在《纳达的抉择Nada Had To Choose(2025)》、《毕加索面包手幻觉Picasso's Bread Hand Illusion(2025)》、《对称性原理The Principle of Symmetry(2025)》等作品中,他摸索了一套用印度黄(Indian Yellow Hue)和透明氧化铁红(Transparent Red Iron Oxide)等透明色绘制肤色的方法。此外,他还大胆地运用现成品和不同的材料直接作用于画面。一是多年现成品和雕塑的工作经历使其习惯于这样去表达,二来他希望借此增加平面架上作品的第三个纬度。
绘画的同时,黎家齐还继续着他在打印图像、城市广告图片装置、视觉文化等领域持续了8年的学术研究。成果以影像论文《生效的不生效:空间拼贴的真相Effective Ineffectiveness: Facts About Space Collage(2020)》、期刊文章《社会视觉现象研究之空间贴图Research of Social Visual Phenomenon: Space Collage(2022)》以及大学研讨会分享《印刷视错觉图像:城市空间的视觉戏法Printed Trompe-l'œil: Urban Visual Tricks(2025)》等形式呈现。