Mingshu Li

Outside the window

11 August - 18 September 2022

Mingshu Li explicitly draws inspiration from the environment around her. After coming to Norway, she started to observe the unfamiliar surroundings and collected elements from everyday life. “I lived in a collective apartment in Torshov, a six-square-meter bedroom was my indoor activity space. A printed Open Window by Henri Matisse was hung on the wall facing the bed. Every time I looked at it, I found solace in the colorful landscape outside Matisse’s window.” In 2021, Li made a sculpture and called it “Window” before she moved out of this tiny room.

After that, Li found a bigger place, the printing moved out with her together. At the same time, she received the one-year artist assistant grant from the cultural council and started to work as an assistant to Irene Nordli. Li was inspired by the working practice during the year, which opens her eyes to various creating methods, pushes her to go beyond her comfort zone, and encourages her to find a way to continue the story of “Window”. In this exhibition, Li shows several sculptures coming from her new idea: Kai Chuang. Kai Chuang means “open windows”. It’s a peculiar Chinese ceramic pattern placed on the conspicuous points of the ceramic ware. Simple lines are applied to outline the symmetrical shape of circle, square, rhombus, etc.; Various landscapes are drawn in the frames. “I’m transforming this pattern and landscapes into my own language by shaping three-dimensional ceramic sculptures, which is an exciting working process and has so many stories to tell,” said Li.

The Open Window is still placed facing Li’s bed, she looks at the painting every day as if there was a window on this wall that she could see through.

Mingshu Li (1994), is an emerging ceramic artist based in Oslo who went on to obtain a Masters in Medium and Material Based Art at the Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo in 2020. She has participated in exhibitions for the past four years both nationally and internationally. Her works are collected by the city of El Vendrell as a part of the Municipal Art Collection in Spain, and KODE Art Museums in Bergen, Norway. Mingshu Li is highly inspired by the environment around her and represents this in her works. She has been exploring non-traditional ways of using clay for making sculptures, understanding how clay can be utilized as a medium to make sense of who she is and where she lives.

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Norway.