Li Chen has been invited to participate in Pulse of Life · 2026 Chengdu Biennale at Chengdu Art Museum, presenting Floating Heavenly Palace and The Genuine State from the Spiritual Journey through the Great Ether series, together with Radiance · Chiliadal Blossom (I) from the Ethereal Cloud series.
This edition of the biennale takes Pulse of Life as its theme and brings together 328 works and groups of works by 251 artists from 29 countries and regions. Organized into six thematic sections—Where It Matters, Wonder in the Everyday, Urban Prism, Traveling through Time and Space, Return to Life, and Twenty-Four Hours—the exhibition examines the relationships between art, the city, everyday life, and contemporary experience from a range of cultural and artistic perspectives.
Traveling through Time and Space: Reconsidering Li Chen through Time and Space
Li Chen's participation in the Traveling through Time and Space section comes at the invitation of its curator, Dr. Jay Xu, Director Emeritus of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Long engaged with the development of Asian art in contemporary cultural contexts, Xu approaches the section through the intersecting ideas of time and space, considering how different cultural traditions are transformed, extended, and reinterpreted within contemporary art.
Li Chen's practice has long moved between weight and lightness, figuration and abstraction, material form and perception. In Floating Heavenly Palace and The Genuine State, the substantial volumes, ink-black surfaces, and seemingly suspended forms create a visual sensation of weightlessness despite the physical mass of the sculptures. Radiance · Chiliadal Blossom (I), by contrast, uses the interplay of black and gold, elongated lines, and an upward sense of movement to construct a more fluid and open spatial field.
Li Chen has described aspects of his work through the lines, "Being devoured between the endless skyline of monumental mountains and surging clouds, the sun dissolves into radiant hues of melted gold," and "Beyond sight of Heaven, suspended in emptiness above the Earth." Mountains, clouds, sunlight, and the vastness of heaven and earth function here not simply as natural imagery, but as ways of thinking through scale, space, and states of existence. His works carry the resonance of Eastern aesthetics while rearticulating these sensibilities through a contemporary sculptural language, allowing viewers to move between weight and lightness, finite form and boundless space.
Jay Xu and Li Chen have maintained a dialogue over many years. Their encounter again within the context of the Chengdu Biennale places these three works within a broader curatorial framework, showing how Li Chen continues to draw on his own cultural experience while exploring time, space, and human perception through contemporary sculpture.
An International Biennale Rooted in Everyday Life
The title Pulse of Life transforms the notion of an "index," usually associated with measurement and quantification, into a way of considering urban life and individual experience. Chief Curator Wu Hongliang has noted that while an index generally refers to data in economics, within the context of the biennale it may also speak to emotion, affection, and people's engagement with art and life.
This edition marks the largest international participation in the biennale's history, with 116 international artists taking part. Participating artists include Bernar Venet and Julian Opie, among others, while 45 works have been specially created in response to the exhibition and the urban context of Chengdu. A number of international projects have also been realized with the support of embassies, consulates, and cultural institutions, further expanding the biennale's cross-cultural dialogue.
Pulse of Life · 2026 Chengdu Biennale
Dates | 2026.2.8 - 2026.8.23
Venue | Chengdu Art Museum, Zone A & Zone B (Tianfu Art Park)
Address | Zone A: No. 181 Huayan Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; Zone B: No. 388 Jinniuba Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Chief Curator | Wu Hongliang
Artistic Director | Wang Shaoqiang
Section Curators | Wu Hongliang, He Guiyan, Guillaume de Sardes, Jay Xu, Martin Rendel, Xiao Feige
