Tianbing Li

Born in 1974 in China, in the southern province of Guilin, Li Tianbing moved to Paris at the age of 22. He continued his studies there at the National School of Fine Arts. His work quickly attracted attention, he became one of the most eminent Chinese artists of his time.

Li draws inspiration from both contemporary Western references and numerous visual, cultural and historical resources from his country, from which he uses traditional pictorial techniques to develop a specific visual language, allowing him to express his origins and question his history. .

Li Tianbing arrived in Paris with a small album, containing only five small black and white photographs of himself when he was between three and five years old. In the 1970s, very few Chinese families had a camera, but Li's father, having worked as a soldier in the army's propaganda unit, was able to borrow one to immortalize his childhood. son. These images play an essential role in Li's work which translates, through his profoundly solitary experience, that of an entire generation in the China of the only child.

The artist found refuge in his own imagination, inventing games with fictional characters. This special biography is made up of poetic portraits of his childhood, and those of an imaginary brother from 2006. His most recent works show the artist accompanied by a host of invented brothers and comrades, in the form of family scrapbook.