Li Chevalier

Li Chevalier distances herself from the clichés attached to precious orientalism in order to embrace a more personal and universal expression. As Claudio Crescentini, chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, underlines, she transcends these stereotypes through “her gestures, her mixtures, her eclecticism and her pathos”, marking the birth of a unique artistic language.

Preferring large or monumental canvases to traditional rice paper, Li Chevalier explores textures through the use of pigments, shavings, minerals and sand, as well as paper collage and calligraphy. This search for the ultimate expression of ink painting leads her to minimise the use of brushes in favour of an approach that magnifies the lyricism intrinsic to water and ink.

In her work she explores fluidity and subtlety with particular attention to the way ink interacts with the support, avoiding literal representation while resisting total abstraction. She favours organic and curved forms, rejecting rigid angles in order to create compositions in which grey, fluid and translucent strokes evoke natural cascades.

Since 2011 her work has held a prominent place on the international scene, illustrated notably by the presence of two of her major paintings in the reception room of the French Embassy in Beijing, where they converse with works by Zao Wou-Ki.