Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that Hannah Li has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and she will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.

Hannah is an award-winning artist based in Texas, USA. Hannah was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists in the gallery’s 15th Solo Art Exhibition Series. The placement in this competition qualified her art to be showcased in this feature.

Hannah’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her artwork in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.

Below are Hannah’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.

Artist Biography

Hannah Li is currently a student and has been an active exhibiting artist for almost 10 years. During that time, she has worked through a variety of professional media, from graphite to her current studio use of oil on canvas. She maintains an active international exhibiting career and continues to discover new forms of expression, whether it be through ideas or medium. Hannah has won over 40 creative & professional awards for her work which is represented in the United States Capitol, museums and galleries, as well as the Texas Rodeo and Auction. Her current studio focus is in using oil painting to depict the stories of the Tibetan culture in a new light, from the discriminatory persecution they face, to the unique nuances of their rich culture. Hannah currently lives in Houston, Texas.

Artist Statement

As far back as i can remember, I have been obsessed with storytelling. From crude scratches in the sandy gravel lining my community playground to the HB #2 masterpieces strewn across calculus worksheets, I’ve traversed across universes, immersing myself within the storylines and lives of characters I would never be able to meet in the tangible world. Page after page, sketchbook after sketchbook soon piled up in the attic, gathering dust to never see the light of day.

However, as the years progressed, I found myself seeking validation through competition, growing increasingly obsessed with the presence of a blue ribbon stamped on my canvas. Stuck in a stupor, I grew tired of my ‘hobby’, no longer seeing the value in the hollow scribbles I had hoarded so fervently before. In order to save my relationship with art, I knew it was crucial to scrap all of the toxic expectations I had held previously.

In the period of convalescence following, I invested in a quality set of oil paints, throwing myself into the field of oil painting with renewed ardor. From studying Sargent’s classics to @henrikauu’s viral surrealist works, I fell for the rich colors but, more so, the breathless gut-punch feeling that I felt after seeing their pieces. The rising socio-political art presence worldwide, tumultuous shifts in American and global circumstances, combined with angsty hormonal impulse, made me completely reevaluate the power of the paintbrush.

Unsatisfied with leaving my stories untold, I have come to realize that I derive gratification by bringing light to things often overlooked. How could I sit idle when minorities from my motherland continued to be prosecuted, when mental health issues among my peers surged higher than ever before, when the world was ablaze? When it comes down to the fundamentals, art - to me - is merely a medium for something much bigger than the canvas. With the artist as narrator, telling stories through light and dark, alizarin red and ultramarine blue, molding aesthetics with a vision for the future.

As I search for the new places art will take me, I am unafraid to provoke, instigate, or even offend. For me, the goal is to have my images arrest my audience, allow them a means of reflection and re-evaluation, and perhaps go out into world to make some change of their own.

Hannah’s website is www.hannahliart.org.