Li Jin (b.1958, Tianjin, China) is the contemporary ink master who is best known for his witty and lush depictions of sensory pleasures. He draws from the tradition of Chinese literati ink painting and creates contemporary works celebrating all aspects of everyday life: food, drink, men, and women.
Li Jin was trained at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and has been a leading figure in contemporary Chinese ink art since the 1980s. He was awarded the Annual Ink Artist at the 2013 Award of Art China and was the only ink artist selected by the authoritative publication L’OFFICIEL Art in 2019. In 2015, his major survey show ‘The Sensory Life of the Mass: 30 Year of LI Jin’ was exhibited at the Long Museum in Shanghai. His works are in the collections of major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Art Museum of China, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seattle Art Museum, and Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Most recently, four pieces from his latest solo exhibition, To Live [It Up], curated by John McDonald at Vermilion Art, were acquired and added into the permanent collection by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Li Jin | Artist Spotlight by Seminal
Art Talk | John McDonald talks about Li Jin
Li Jin | To Live (It Up)
CV
| 1958 | Born in Tianjin, China |
| 1983 | Graduated from Chinese Painting Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts |
| Present | Associate Professor at Chinese Painting Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts |
| 2024 | “Simple Pleasures”, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK |
| “Li Jin: Solo Exhibition”, Melbourne Art Fair 2024, Vermilion Art, Melbourne, Australia | |
| “Li Jin: The Last Five Years”, Vermilion Art, Sydney, Australia | |
| 2023 | “Li Jin: Platform China”, Beijing, China |
| “Companion to Sit With”, Line Gallery, Beijing, China | |
| “Li Jin’s Life”, Zhi Art Space, Jinan, China | |
| “Live Slowly”, Nagi Art Space, Jinan, China | |
| 2022 | “Li Jin: Platform China”, Beijing, China |
| “Li Jin: Carnivore is not Vulgar”, He Art Museum | |
| 2021 | “Li Jin: Arthat, Line Gallery, Beijing, China |
| 2020 | “Li Jin: To Live (It Up)”, Vermilion Art, Sydney, Australia |
| “Li Jin: The Heart Sutra”, Hi Art Centre, Beijing, China | |
| 2019 | “Go on and on”, ART CHANGSHA Biennial, Changsha, China |
| “Flesh and Bone”, INK studio, Beijing, China | |
| 2018 | “Li Jin: Chinese Ink Painting”, Bohman-Knappe, Stockholm, Sweden |
| 2017 | “Li Jin: A Devout Foodist’s Journey to the West”, Sotheby’s S2 Gallery, Los Angles, USA |
| 2016 | “The Trip in Kyushu”, Hi Art Center, Beijing, China |
| “Li Jin Solo Exhibition,Context New York 2016”, Context New York, New York, USA | |
| “Being”, INK studio, Beijing, China | |
| 2015 | “The Sensory Life of the Mass: 30 Years of Li Jin”, Long Museum, Shanghai, China |
| 2014 | “The Roots of Pleasure: The Paintings and Sculpture of Li Jin”, Sotheby’s S2, Hong Kong |
| “Li Jin, I Must Be Myself”, L’ Officiel Art Space, Beijing, China | |
| “Banquet · An Exhibition of works by Li Jin”, Museum of Contemporary Art Xinjiang, Urumqi, China | |
| “Li Jin New Art Work Exhibition”, Houtian Gallery, Beijing, China | |
| Merrymaking: Li Jin’s Solo Exhibition, Gallery 100, Taipei | |
| “On the Spot Journal－Li Jin’s Experimental Ink Painting”, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China | |
| 2013 | “Eat and Drink, Man, Woman”, The Victorian Artists Society, Melbourne, Australia |
| “Li Jin – New Work”, The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia | |
| 2012 | “Li Jin · Today · Banquet”, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China |
| “Tuschmalerei (Ink Paintings)”, Dittmar Gallery, Berlin, Germany | |
| “Li Jin New Year Work Exhibition”, Houtian Gallery, Beijing, China | |
| 2010 | “Li Jin”, Kasten Gallery, Mannheim, Germany |
| “Li Jin: One Square Meter Paintings”, Houtian Gallery, Beijing, China | |
| 2009 | “The Art of Li Jin”, Kunstraum-Bernusstrabe, Frankfurt, Germany |
| 2008 | “Malerei und Tuschzeichnungen (Paintings and Ink Drawings)”, Dittmar Gallery, Berlin, Germany |
| 2007 | “A Feast, Food and Sex”, Artside Gallery, Seoul, Korea |
| 2006 | “Li Jin’s New Works”, Gallery 99, Aschaffenburg, Germany |
| “Li Jin Solo”, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia | |
| “Li Jin – Solo Exhibition”, Art Scene China, Shanghai, China | |
| 2005 | “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA |
| “Art Exhibition By Li Jin: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman”, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok, Thailand | |
| “Simple Pleasures–Passing Time with Li Jin”, Asian Art Options, Singapore | |
| 2004 | “Li Jin: New Works”, Courtyard Gallery, Beijing, China |
| 2003 | “Li Jin: A Feast”, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA |
| 2024 | “Contemporary Logic of a Pure and Remote View”, WuHan Art Museum, Hubei, China |
| 2023 | “The Idea Life: A Group Exhibition of Artists in Geoff Raby Collection”, Vermilion Art, Sydney, Australia |
| “Global Ink”, Ink Studio, Beijing, China | |
| 2022 | Ink in Motion, A History of Chinese Painting in the 20th Century, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France |
| 2021 | “Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA |
| 2019 | “In Ink: Current Trends of Ink Art”, NanHai Art, San Francisco, USA |
| 2018 | ”Tradition and change: dialogue in the process of ink painting, Zhu Qizhan art museum, Shanghai, China |
| “Spearhead: new abstract of ink painting”, MingYuan art museum, Shanghai, China | |
| “Chinese expressionism”, CUI ZHENGKUAN art Museum, Xi’an, China | |
| 2017 | 2017 “Boundless: Ongoing-Chinese Ink Art” ,Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China |
| “More than ten feasibility of ink”, Luxehills Art Museum, Chengdu, China | |
| “LUMINOUS SHADOWS”, Ink Studio, Beijing, China | |
| 2016 | “The Magic of Characters-3000 years of Chinese calligraphy”, Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, German |
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“Being and Inking–Documenting Contemporary InkArt (2001-2016)”, Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou, China
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| “Permanent Abstraction—–Epiphanies of a Modern Form in Escaped Totalities”, Red Brick Art Museum | |
| “Annual review exhibition of china contemporary ink painting”, Today art museum, Beijing, China | |
| 2015 |
“The Revival of Tradition: Another Approach to Contemporary Chinese Art”, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York, USA
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| “Art historical flashback–another path to contemporary Chinese art”, elion art gallery, Beijing | |
| 2014 | “Poetry Calligraphy Painting Magazine’s First Annual Exhibition: Male·Female”, Shandong Art Museum, Jinan, China |
| “Within and Without–Transformations in Chinese Landscapes”, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, USA | |
| “Ink and the Body”, Ink Studio, Beijing, China | |
| “In Sequence–Chinese Contemporary Ink Art Exhibition”, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China | |
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“China’s Changing Landscape–Contemporary Chinese Ink”, Nordiska Akvarellmuseet (Nordic Watercolour Museum), Skärhamn, Sweden
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| 2013 | “Portrait of the Times–30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art”, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China |
| “Illusion/Image–Contemporary Chinese Ink Art Series I”, Hive Centre of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China | |
| “The Origin of Dao–New Dimensions in Chinese Contemporary Art”, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong S.A.R., China |
| 2014 | “Artist of the Year” granted by L’OFFICIEL Art 2013 |
| 2013 | “Ink Artist of the Year” granted by AAC · Art China 2012 |
Metropolitan Museum of Ar, New York, USA
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, University of Washington, Seattle, USA
Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong S.A.R., China
Guangzhou Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA
The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, Australia
The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, USA
| Museum of Fine Arts Boston | |
| Hao Sheng on Li Jin | |
| The Met | Li Jin, Banquet No.1 ,2012 |
| Li Jin, Vegetable #3, 2015 | |
| Sotheby’s | Li Jin‘s Food and Fantasy Journey through America, a solo exhibition with Sotheby’s Los Angeles |
| Sotheby’s Hong Kong 2017: Li Jin, Garden, 2011, lot sold at 2,000,000 HKD | |
| CoBo Social | Li Jin| CoBo Social |
| Cafa | Li Jin |
![Li Jin: To Live [It Up] exhibition highlights](https://vermilionart.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/1642050374253-e1642050409837.jpg)
