The Gallery of the College of Staten Island/CUNY is honored to present Foreign Terrain: The Paintings of Ying Li from April 9 through May 14, 2014, an exhibit of the recent paintings of this accomplished and celebrated painter. Born in Beijing, China in 1951, Ying Li is a professor of Fine Arts and Departmental Chair at Haverford College, PA. After receiving her initial training in China, she immigrated to the United States in 1983. Here she earned her MFA from Parsons School of Design in New York in 1987. She has been awarded innumerous grants and residencies and her work has been extensively exhibited in both solo and group shows. She has received many outstanding reviews of her work, including several in The New York Times and Art in America.
The title of this exhibit, Foreign Terrain, has a double meaning. It refers to the natural source of inspiration for Ying, the Alpine landscapes of Italy and Switzerland that she experienced during her recent residency at the Centro Incontri Umani Ascona, but it also refers to the transformation of her canvases into landscapes in their own right. It is perhaps in the dynamic interaction of these two meanings rather than in their separation that one comes to appreciate how her vibrant, direct, alla prima (wet-in-wet) paintings bring to life the artistic equivalencies that she seeks, embedded within nature itself. More than a reflection of, or competition with, nature, Ying Li’s vital landscapes fearlessly produce foreign terrains that extract, clarify, and ultimately translate nature using the artist’s semantic tool box of color, brushstroke, light, and frame. Her manner of plowing or “working” the terrain of her canvases keeps current the venerable tradition of such divergent artists as Vincent van Gogh, and the late works of Winslow Homer, Milton Resnick, and CSI’s own Pat Passlof, to name a few. Her works together in our Gallery and explicated by Xico Greenwald’s brochure essay will stand as an art-affirming experience for artists and viewers alike.
The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, Apr. 9 in the Gallery in the Center for the Arts (Building 1P) from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.
For more information, call Craig Manister at 718.982.2553.
