Li Songsong

Material as History

31.10.2015–07.02.2016
A large, well-lit art gallery with paintings on all four walls.
An art gallery showcasing modern paintings with a person walking through.
An art gallery featuring large, colorful paintings with a polished, reflective floor.
A single large, multicolored abstract artwork on a white gallery wall with two doorways on either side.
A contemporary art gallery displaying mixed media collages featuring bicycles and various scenes.
A minimalist gallery with large abstract art hanging on the right wall near a door.
An artwork gallery hall showcasing various portraits hanging on the walls.
An art gallery with a doorway showing a colorful painting beyond it.
A gallery with three artworks on the walls and a doorway with an exit sign.
An art gallery with three framed paintings on neutral walls and a doorway.
An art gallery with three framed pieces displayed on light grey walls.
Art gallery displaying four contemporary paintings on white walls in a spacious room.
A modern art gallery with two hanging artworks and a sculpture in the hallway.
A minimalist gallery with artworks mounted on white walls and an open doorway.
A person admires an abstract painting in an art gallery with light gray walls.
An art gallery corner with two displayed artworks and a third piece visible through a doorway.
A modern art gallery featuring two paintings with an open doorway in the middle.
A room displaying a large, detailed map art piece and an artifact in a niche.

Artist

  • Li Songsong

Curator

  • Hendrik Bündge

Publication

A catalogue with English, Italian and German texts by Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi, Gianfranco Maraniello and Hendrik Bündge was published by Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld.

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is pleased to announce the first institutional solo exhibition with works by Chinese painter Li Songsong in Germany. In cooperation with the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo) it is the first institutional solo exhibition in Europe.

Li's artistic approach manifests itself in the medium of painting and is characterized above all by a Chinese view of the history of the 20th century. In recent years in particular, he has increasingly focused on processes of social change brought about by globalization. His starting point is political events and processes, which, divided into rectangles of different colors, are transferred into large-format paintings. The oil paint, which is applied in several layers and can be several centimetres thick, becomes the actual pictorial ground into which Li carves his motifs with brush and paint.

Li Songsong was born in 1973. After graduating from the Subsidiary School of the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing in 1992, he went on to receive his B.F.A. in oil painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1996.

Curated by Hendrik Bündge