Artist Li Xiaogang featured in Venice Biennale exhibition

Beijing-born painter and educator Li Xiaogang is participating in the research exhibition ‘Metamorphosis: Beyond the Real – Searching for Victoria Lu’ at Ca’ Foscari Esposizioni during the 61st Venice Art Biennale.

The exhibition explores authorship, memory, and subjectivity in the era of artificial intelligence. Li’s tempera works, which include portraits, still lifes, and rural scenes, provide a contrast to AI-driven rapid generation through their emphasis on deliberate slowness, craftsmanship, and tactile human emotion.

Li, who serves as Vice President of the Li Keran Academy of Painting, previously studied Renaissance tempera and fresco in Italy. His artistic style incorporates the aesthetic of ‘mono no aware’ alongside influences from artists such as Piero della Francesca, Andrew Wyeth, and Balthus.