Li Zhan, a modern art teacher of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, won the Golden Award in the second Hong Kong Youth Arts Awards competition with his work Dwelling State, according to release of the organizing committee published in late October.

The certificate of honor for BIFT teacher Li Zhan.

The event was organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Art and Culture and opened for works from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. The competition gathered many excellent works of art, fully demonstrating the vitality of the new era and the innovative spirit of artists. A total of 1,764 people participated in the contest, and 2,455 works won awards.

Li’s work is composed of 49 small paintings. The works simplify the body parts of the characters into geometric forms and the environment into color blocks, making the action images become the compositional factors of the picture, and creating rich layers of the picture through free light and dark distinction, exploring the essential meaning of abstract language in modern and contemporary painting.

Li Zhan is a BIFT teacher of modern art.

“Dwelling State” by Li Zhan, 20cm x 30cm x 49 pieces, Acrylic on canvas, 2024

Detail of Dwelling State by Li Zhan.

Dwelling State was inspired by the “Daoyintu” silk painting excavated from the Mawangdui Tombs of the Western Han Dynasty  (206 BCE – 9 CE) located in Changsha, Hunan province. The works transform the idea of the unity of man and nature reflected in the ancient painting into a modern one, using the state of ancient people living in nature as a reference to express the way modern people get along with the world today, reflecting the artist's ingenious idea of using painting to express the imprints of the times.

Li is committed to the teaching, research and creation of modern and contemporary art, unifying abstract composition methods with the modern social landscape in the painting to form a unique artistic style. He believes that painting is one of the most basic ways of human expression, and it conveys people’s emotions in the process of promoting Chinese modernization. He hopes that through this work the viewers can reflect on the creative orientation of “people-centered” and be inspired to recognize, experience, feel, appreciate and create beauty in modern life.