Statement Profile GlogauAIR Project CV Summary

Statement

The work of artist educator LiLi 丽丽 Nacht is rooted in meditation, ritual, Daoist/Buddhist practice, and 山水 (mountain water) ink landscape painting traditions. LiLi 丽丽 creates environments, abstract forms and fluid compositions that transcend the literal, inviting viewers into a space of reflection and connection with their inner world. LiLi 丽丽 employs a diverse range of media, including painting, performance and social practice, to explore the tensions between chosen and inherited identities, reimagine historical narratives, and foster collective unlearning.

@mengcheng.tn

Profile

GlogauAIR Project

Central to this project is the traditional Chinese painting compositional element 留白 liu bai, or “leaving white,” where negative space is intentionally used in a work of art to represent an internal state or as a blank web for projecting the imagination- an emptiness.

Building upon this foundation, the project envisions the creation of large-scale painting scrolls that capture the fluidity of meditative movements and embody the essence of transformation inherent in such practices. The work will also integrate corresponding I-Ching hexagrams and offer visual interpretations of these symbols. This liminality aims to highlight moments that exist between states of being and the potential found within pauses or the anticipation of change.

CV Summary

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, LiLi 丽丽 received her BA in Visual Arts at Columbia University in New York City with additional courses completed at Universität der Künste in Berlin. In 2022, she completed her MFA at the China Academy of Art (中国美术学院) in HangZhou, with a specialization in traditional Chinese landscape painting. She has taught in universities, schools, and museums across China, USA and Germany. LiLi 丽丽 is a founding member of the MengCheng 梦城团 Collective, a queer collective of Asian-American artists from the American South with a focus on resource dissemination, archive making, intergenerational dialogue, communal healing, and empowerment.

Upcoming exhibitions: Minerva Gallery (CN, Aug 2025), Sheet Cake Gallery (USA, Feb 2026)

Selected exhibitions: NADA Curates “As It Unfolds” (online, 2025), Stove Works “Celestial Bodies” (USA, 2025), UrbanArt Commission “Between Heaven and Earth, We Build Our Home” (USA, 2024), Crosstown Arts “KAI PA TI” (USA, 2023)

Press/Publications: Suhrkamp Verlag, Focus LGBT+ Magazine, Burnaway Magazine, DADDY Magazine, The China Project