Li Chen is widely regarded as one of the most influential sculptors of Chinese descent today. Through his distinctive ink-black sculptural language, he translates spiritual concepts such as qi (vital energy), xu (emptiness/void), and jing (stillness/quietude) from Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist thought—into contemporary sculptural expression. In doing so, he has established a highly recognizable artistic path that bridges Eastern philosophy and modern sculptural vocabulary. In his works, massive volumes coexist with a sense of lightness, and sculpture is no longer merely a material form but becomes a spatial field that carries spiritual energy.
This exhibition presents a systematic overview of Li Chen's artistic development since the late 1990s. Bringing together more than sixty sculptures and paintings, it includes works from several major series, including Energy in Emptiness, Spiritual Journey through the Great Ether, The Beacon, Ordinary People, Ethereal Cloud, and Celestial Manuscripts. Together, these works trace the artist's evolving exploration—from his early contemplation of qi to his more recent extensions into symbolic structures and spiritual space—revealing more than two decades of sustained inquiry into Eastern spirituality.
Within Li Chen's sculptural practice, Spiritual Journey through the Great Ether is not merely the title of a series but also a continuously unfolding spiritual methodology. Since the series began in 2001, the artist has employed ink-black volumes together with gold and silver materials to create a subtle balance between material density and spiritual lightness, gradually shifting his creative focus from the modeling of form toward the construction of spiritual space. Building on this foundation, the Ethereal Cloud series uses rigid materials to evoke the movement of air, transforming time and memory into visible structures. In recent years, the Celestial Manuscripts series has further detached writing from semantic meaning, extending the flow of qi to the level of symbols and structures of viewing.
Curated by Wu Hongliang, this exhibition revisits Li Chen's most iconic creative trajectory nearly a decade after the curator organized a major exhibition of the artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei in 2017. Taking Spiritual Journey through the Great Ether as its central thread, the exhibition reexamines the artist's sculptural system and presents the distinctive energetic field he has constructed between Eastern spiritual traditions and contemporary sculptural language.
Li Chen: Spiritual Journey through the Great Ether
Dates | 2026.03.13 - 05.17
Venue | Hall 12/13, 3F, Guangdong Museum of Art (BAIETAN) | No. 19, Bai'etan S. Rd., Liwan District, Guangzhou, China
Organizer | Guangdong Museum of Art
Supporter | Asia Art Center
Exhibition Director | Wang Shaoqiang
Curator | Wu Hongliang
Creative Director | Tang Sheng
Executive Curator | Xu Haoyang
