About

Shanbo Li’s Exhibition ‘Visualisation of Life’ 2021

Shanbo Li says “When I see a model, I don’t know how to paint, and what is the true reality. Then I started painting the faces of my family and friends, to explore real emotions, including uneasy, troubled, miserable, lonely, hesitant, anxious, and fearful. These emotions empowered them, and also become elements of my creation. A series of <MASTER> describe the portraits of great artists who influenced me the most. After extensively researched their personal biography, videos, artworks, I created the series. What I painted is their eternal human nature.”

Exhibition Introduction ©Shanbo：

Shanbo Li once wrote in the article “The Narrative of Life”: “Life is a bridge that connects the two sides of birth and death. Unconsciously, I have passed the age of 40 in the epidemic. 2020 is an unforgettable year for people all over the world, when many people left in this year, and many people experienced life’s ups and downs in this year—sickness, unemployment, homelessness, and career transformation. Among them are my relatives and my friends. Sorrow can not avoid parting. Sorrow always belongs to life. Perhaps only at this moment can we stop to think about the meaning of life, re-understand life, and build the wisdom of life, just like Milan Kundera described “The Unbearable Lightness of Life”.

Day and night, we are immersed in the hustle and bustle of the city, the feasting, the busy traffic, the money and fame, each of us is very tired, because our desires are endless, we need to disguise ourselves in the crowd, show off ourselves, with the false appearance deprived of inner sadness. We are not living for ourselves, in exchange for the applause and envy of others. Money and power have filled the emptiness of our spirit. Everyone seems to wear a pair of high-heeled shoes. Their gorgeous appearance distorts their limbs. Alexandre Dumas once wrote in “The Count of Monte Cristo”: Happiness is a pair of shoes, and only you know whether you are comfortable. But we can never escape from our human nature. We care too much about who we are in the eyes of others.

In this world, we are putting efforts with tenacious will, in exchange to achieve our dreams and reflecting our value, and also it is making us bruised. Schopenhauer once said: Life is like a pendulum, swinging in pain and boredom. When desires are not satisfied, it is painful, and when desires are satisfied, it is boring. What is life? Life should not be gorgeous, instead life should be weather-beaten; life should not drift with the flow, rather life should be self-disciplined and self-sufficient; life should not be ostentatious, but should bloom to self. Life is contradictory.

Let us continue to bear and experience, and find happiness in sorrow, and resolve inner loneliness in the crowd. Life that has not experienced pain is too limited. Russell once told us that the wisdom of life is to learn to love. Love will heal the pain of life; love will heal our wounds; love is the wisest choice; love can make our lives eternal; Love is everywhere. It is not a luxury Hermes. It is as simple as your breathing. It may be a word, a smile, or it may be a look, a hug, and heart beats out the melody of love. ”

Group Exhibitions:

2018: Body, The One Club, Beijing, China.
2019: Restart, Weiou Art Gallery, Beijing, China.