Born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in 1994, Li Hanwei graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts in 2018, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. Li’s practice is based on adapting forms of commercial advertisements and films as metaphors. Through the study of communication methods, the artist uses CG images to establish a worldview in the fictional world where counterfeit of the real world and science-fiction coexist, as a way to present the intersection of contemporary cultural forms and individual identities. Li was nominated for “Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents” in 2020 and for “ART POWER 100 YOUTH POWER” in 2019. He was awarded as “PORSCHE Young Chinese Artist of the Year” in 2023.

Li’s solo exhibitions include: “Just Drill It!”, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, 2024; “New Painting”, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, 2022; “New Communication”, chi K11 art museum, Shanghai, 2022; “Liquid Health”, Goethe Open Space, Shanghai, 2019. He has also participated in group exhibitions including: “Smart Order”, 69 Art Campus, Beijing, 2023;“Demonstration: The Art of Decision-Making Techniques”, Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, 2023; “Messengers”, Surplus Space, Wuhan, 2023; “Unknown Pleasures”, Soul Art Center, Beijing 2023; “Spring Rhapsody”, KWM ArtCenter”, 2022; “Wave Wave”, chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2021; “Do Not Black Out”, McaM, Shanghai, China, 2021; “USB Multi-Port Linking Exhibition”, MadeIn Gallery, Gallery Func, QIAO SPACE, in the PARK, Shanghai, China, 2021; “Generation Now”, Kultursymposium Weimar 2021, Eigenheim Weimar, Weimar, Germany, 2021; “Futurism of the Past”, Beijing Contemporary Art Expo 2021 STORY, Beijing, China, 2021; “Looping”, CHAO Art Center, Beijing, China, 2021; “Undefined”, Kiyoshi Art Space, Tokyo, Japan, 2020; “Ensemble Urban”, APSMUSEUM, Shanghai, China, 2020; “Illusive Particles”, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2020; “Sino-Wharf: from Chinatown to Red Internationalism”, OCAT, Shenzhen, China, 2020; “Recommendations of Institutions”, Boxes Art Space, Shenzhen, China, 2020; “Wild Metropolis”, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019; “Advent: Inventing Landscape, Producing the Earth”, Qianshao Contemporary Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2019； “Extreme Mix”, Guangzhou Airport Biennale, Guangzhou, China, 2019; “The Variable and The Generating”, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, 2019; “Hunting Cycle”, MadeIn Park, Shanghai, 2018; “Shanghai Hot the Beheaded Six”, Yell Space, Shanghai, 2018; Boundary, SIVA, Shanghai, China; BABEL7, Babelsberger Strasse 52, Berlin, 2018; “Diversity”, École nationale supérieure d’art de Nice – Villa Arson, Nice, 2016.

Meanwhile, Li co-operates the online contemporary art space Slime Engine with Liu Shuzhen, Fang Yang and Shan Liang. Li has been involved in the conception and production of multiple exhibitions of Slime Engine.