Li Kejin‘s artworks create a dynamic universe in which human beings, humanoids and creatures of the animal world live, intertwine and often become one. Checking works such as the ‘Red, Blue, Green Remains’ (2026), faces can be seen through the turbulent, colourful depictions while the bodies of the characters are often distorted; these uncommon beings seem to flicker between solid forms and abstract shapes on the artist’s canvases. The artist employs flexibility in language of his visual art; Stepping away from the rules of clear figuration, the artist builds a fluid universe where anatomy is liquid and the differences between different life forms dissolves.

In Kejin’s works like ‘Memory’ (2026) or ‘The Truth’ (2026), faces are usually used as the starting point. With their large eyes, mouth full of teeth, long features and exaggerated expressions, the figures immediately get attention. However, these deformities don’t necessarily lead the figures to being monsters. On the contrary, the figures can be playful, confused, and aggressive or ridiculously weak, which makes an ambiguity for the viewers to define any meaning. In ‘The Guest’ (2026), many figures are seen under a giant head whose wide, red-rimmed eyes dominate the upper part of the composition, contrasting sharply with the smaller, multicolored entities crowding the foreground in fluid shades of turquoise, violet, and pink. This deliberate play on scale establishes a clear visual hierarchy, while the rhythmic repetition of expressions and gestures infuses the group with a sense of an energetic motion on canvas. Ultimately, the artwork functions less as a frozen landscape and more as a dynamic crossroads where diverse presences interact within a volatile space.

words: yannis kostarias

Color operates as a foundational element in Kejin’s visual language. Utilizing a vibrant palette of electric blue, acid green, striking red, bold yellow and intense pink, the artist frequently juxtaposes contrasting hues to transcend simple anatomical representation. These colors actively dissolve physical boundaries, allowing forms to merge into one another. At times, the figures almost dissolve into the backdrop, creating a hazy atmosphere where they seem to step out of or melt back into the paint. It proves that a painting can be deeply expressive and full of feeling without resorting to a dark, gloomy color scheme.

The implementation of paint in the work of the artist helps to enhance this fluidity even more. A combination of bold strokes and sharp details works alongside the blurry constructed bodies test the clarity of a more conventional figurative approach. Such correlation between the clarity and vagueness of the image in Kejin’s imagery provides the paintings with a certain degree of tension: all the creatures are identifiable yet their shapes cannot be viewed with a full sense of precision and transparency.

What makes Li Kejin’s body of work memorable is his balanced approach between the eeriness and vivacity. The characters that he creates are odd and alarming, but not completely horrifying. The bright color palette introduces absurdity, vitality and visual exuberance into the work. Yet the paintings are not simply visualizations of an imagined universe. Overall, his distinctively creative vocabulary draws on the expressive possibilities of distortion, exaggeration and painterly freedom widening the possibilities for the viewers to expand their own fantasy and interpretation.

1. How would you define your work in a few words (ideally in 3 words)? 用几个词（最好三个）来定义你的作品？

Post-apocalyptic, alienation, animality. 末世、异化、动物性。

2. Could you share with us some insights on your new work named ‘Minority” (2026)? Is there any particular story behind this new painting?  能和我们分享一下你名为《少数人》（2026）的新作品背后的想法吗？这幅新画是否有特别的故事或寓意？

I’ve always been curious about hyenas. In people’s minds they’re seen as sleazy and clumsy—maybe because their behavior reminds humans of the despicable side of themselves. Like in Evangelion, where people hate Shinji Ikari, but life is just that ugly, real, and diverse. So I combined the hyena’s image with the human figure, making it look more emotionally complex and more intriguing.

我一直以来对鬣狗很好奇。鬣狗在人心中的形象总是猥琐的、蹩脚的，也可能是因为它们的行为让人类想到了自己可鄙的一面，就像《福音战士》里的人们讨厌碇真嗣，但生命本来就是这样的丑陋、真实、多样。所以我将猎狗的形象和人做了结合，让它看上去情绪更复杂，更加耐人寻味。

3. Your palette often appears vivid and intense; how do you use colour to shape the mood of a painting?

你的色彩常常显得鲜明而强烈，你是如何运用色彩来营造画作氛围的？

It comes from my memories of the cult films and cartoons I loved in the ’80s and ’90s—I liked their jarring use of color, and that shaped my visual experience. Also, a lot of accidental color mixing and clashing on the palette inspires me. This ties into my fairly random way of working—though it takes a lot of courage. I like the direct power of painting, so I feel I need to respect all those accidental effects and gestures, and color is the same. Clashing colors and highly saturated complementary colors give the narrative in my paintings more force and more mystery.

来源以前爱看的一些八九十年代的邪典电影和卡通的记忆，喜欢其中刺激性的色彩表达，这影响了我的视觉经验；其次，调色盘上很多不经意的调色和撞色也会启发我。这跟我比较随机的创作方式有关，当然，这需要鼓起很大的勇气。我喜欢绘画直接的力量，因此我觉得我需要尊重很多偶然的效果和动作，色彩也一样。撞色和高饱和度的互补色，能让我的画面叙事更有力量，也更有神秘感。

4. At times, your characters on canvas can appear both playful and unsettling. How do you approach this contrast?

有时画布上的角色既显得俏皮又令人不安，你是如何处理这种对比的？

Yes,emotion in life is the core of my work’s narrative, incredibly real and precious. I hope that by creating unfamiliar, contradictory figures and characters, I can push myself to think about the very idea of “the human” from a more subtle angle—thinking that often starts with the image itself rather than the narrative. A writer once said all human behavior comes down to love and fear, and I hope my work is like that too. So when you ask if I deliberately pursue playfulness and unease—I think these are emotions that can interact with the viewer’s own. They’re not fixed; they’re complex, temporary, changing from one second to the next.

是的，生命的情感是我作品叙事的核心，无比真实和可贵。我希望通过创作陌生且矛盾的形象和角色，逼着自己从更加细微的角度思考“人”这个概念，思考往往是关于形象本身的开始而非叙事。一位作家说过，人的所有行为都离不开爱和恐惧，我希望我的作品也是如此。所以你提到我是否会刻意追求俏皮和不安，我认为这些都是能和观者情绪产生互动的情绪。它们不是固定的，而是复杂的、临时的，随时下一秒就会变化的。

5. Do you expect any specific emotions from your viewers’ experience as they explore your body of work? 你是否期待观众在探索你的作品时产生某种特定的情感体验？

Yes, I hope the first thing they feel is some kind of indescribable strangeness, and then warmth, emotion.But while I’m painting, I don’t think about that. I only think about it before I start and after it’s done, when it’s shown. During painting, I try to stay direct and simple, to get as close as possible to the point I want to reach. Of course, I hope my work can slowly open people up inside. Right now my paintings get two extreme reactions: some find them terrifying, others find them vivid and fun. I’m fine with both. People are complex, paintings should be even more complex. Reality is the end of dreams, but painting should be like a dream, a continuation of reality. Painting should bring more vitality and emotion into life than life itself has. I once saw someone standing in front of my work with headphones on, completely absorbed for a long time—that moment gave me such a sense of achievement.

是的，期待他们第一眼看到时能产生一种难以名状的怪感吧，然后觉得有温度、有情感。但画画的过程中我不会考虑这些，创作之前和完成之后展出的时候才会。绘画的过程中，我想尽量保持直接和单纯，尽可能去触碰我想要达到的那个点。当然，我希望我的作品可以让人慢慢把内心打开。目前我的绘画会收到两种极端的观感：一种觉得很恐怖，另一种觉得鲜活有趣。我觉得都可以，人是复杂的，画应该更复杂才对。现实是梦境的终结，然而绘画应该如同梦境一样，是现实的延续；绘画就是应该给人带来更多生活里没有的生命力和情感。我曾看到有人站在我的作品前，戴着耳机非常沉浸地观看很久，那一秒我非常有成就感。

6. Do specific artworks have been created by random experiments in your studio or do you usually come up with a particular concept or narrative in the very beginning of your artistic process? Are they, somehow, related to personal memories or are they closer to your imagination as an artist?

你的作品中是否有一些是通过工作室里的随机实验创作出来的？还是通常在创作初期就已确定了特定的概念或叙事？这些作品是否与个人记忆有关，还是更接近你作为艺术家的想象力？

Yeah, my work relies heavily on feeling and imagination. When I sit there all serious, it’s hard to come up with anything interesting. But when I’m zoning out—before bed, in the shower,good ideas always come. And whatever I think of right before sleep gets my brain so wired I can’t sleep. I collect a lot of material online to help me find the feeling, but the way a piece comes together is very random—I try to open myself up as much as possible. So when it comes to actually making the work, I hand myself over to imagination and feeling. Within a given phase of work, the overall direction of the narrative is basically set. I don’t like blind experimentation,I find it really pretentious. When I know what I want, I go straight at it and then adjust along the way. So my working periods are pretty unpredictable,because if a new idea comes, I’ll toss out what I had without hesitation. Randomness plays a huge part.

是的，我的创作非常依赖感觉和想象。当我一本正经坐在那儿时，很难想出有意思的内容；反而是放空的时候，比如睡前和淋浴的时候，总能想到好点子。还有入睡前想到什么，大脑会亢奋到睡不着。我平时会大量搜集互联网素材来辅助自己找感觉，但作品的构思是非常随机的，尽可能把自己打开。所以到具体创作时，我会把自己交给想象和感觉。
在阶段性的创作中，叙事的大方向基本是定下来的。我不喜欢盲目的实验，我觉得那样非常的做作，当我知道我想要什么，我会直接去画，然后在过程中修改。所以我的创作周期很不稳定，因为如果有新的想法，我也会毫不犹豫地把之前的推翻，随机性占的比例非常大。

7. Creative process often involves using two types of approaches including free and detailed. Are you guided by both styles in your work?

创作过程通常包含两种方式，即自由与细节。你的作品是否同时受到这两种风格的引导？

Yes. In the early stage of creating, I lean more toward free-form creation and imagination. I think the starting point has to be really high, to avoid getting into too many details too early. So I keep reminding myself to pull my focus back to the big picture, the overall narrative feel. And I increasingly feel that details aren’t that important. If I had to talk about details, I’d want them to be like Monet’s Water Lilies , details woven together from countless sensory, rough traces.

是的。创作初期，我更倾向于自由式的创作和想象，我觉得起点一定要很高，避免自己过早进入过多的细节，所以重心得不断地提醒自己拉回到大的叙事感觉，而且我越来越觉得细节没有那么的重要来。 如果非要说细节我希望像莫奈的睡莲那样是无数的感觉性的粗糙痕迹编织而成的细节。

8. Which are your plans for the near future?  你近期有什么计划？

Not for now—I’ll take it one step at a time.

暂时还没有，走一步看一步吧。

all images courtesy of the artistt