Li Ning: Welcome Jon Looka

Welcome Jon Looka is a solo exhibition by the Hong Kong artist Li Ning, which revolves around a village of the same name in the future world created by the artist, which means "going home" in the Hakka dialect. Through various media, including mixed media prints, pencil on paper/canvas, ceramics and video, the artist takes viewers into this dystopian sci-fi landscape.

The artist's work has always been narrative, and their images are filled with various metaphors and symbols. Stylistically, they incorporate elements of popular culture such as movies, comics, and animation, as well as myths and legends from around the world. Since the artist's graduation show in 2019, his work has been grounded in this fictional world: the early works are a collage of scattered images created by the artist, and there is a sense of repetition in the numerous flattened image works, while the exhibited works. Time focuses more on the existing narrative between them, where the forms of creatures and characters are realized in a more three-dimensional way.

The artist's pencil-on-paper/canvas works will be shown for the first time in this exhibition. For the artist, painting is immediate and spontaneous, usually the beginning of an idea and creation, and the brushstrokes carry the emotion of the moment. On the other hand, printmaking takes time to prepare and master the printing technique. While "light" is carved from the surface of the print, the drawing depicts "darkness". He believes that presenting the two mediums together not only complements each other conceptually but also presents a contrast in visual effect.
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