Mianhua

Mianhua (born Li Shimei) is an independent artist currently living and working between Paris and Shanghai.

In 2008, her first oil painting was acquired by an international art institution, marking the beginning of her professional artistic career. Since then, she has pursued an independent and sustained artistic path, gradually developing a distinctive and recognizable artistic language of her own.

Time, existence, and the essence of life have remained the central concerns of her practice. Through an abstract visual language, Mianhua seeks to explore different dimensions of life, as well as the innate sacredness and poetic nature of life. Her work explores how life comes into being, grows, fades, and returns within the flow of time, while asking how that which is invisible yet undeniably real may be perceived and made visible. Moving between the visible and the invisible, the finite and the infinite, the minute and the immense, the individual and the universe, she continually explores the hidden yet authentic connections between life, time, existence, and the universe.

Mianhua also writes poetry. Her engagement with poetry, literature, music, and theatre has shaped the rich metaphors, inner rhythm, and distinctive spiritual sensibility that characterize her work.

She has presented solo exhibitions at major art museums, with her works collected by art institutions and international collectors. She has also collaborated with theatre directors and musicians in numerous interdisciplinary projects, sustaining an ongoing exploration and dialogue across different cultural contexts.

Solo Exhibitions

2021    Birds Flying Over the Mountains, Xintiandi, Shanghai, China
2019    Wrinkles and Ballads, Being Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2018    Confide, Shenzhen University Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
2016    Gift, Réel Art Space, Shanghai, China
2014    Meet Again, Jing’an Kerry Centre Art Space, Shanghai, China
2013    The Rhythm, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2012    Secrets, Anhui Museum, Hefei, China
2011    Encounter, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2009    Blooming, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China

Group Exhibitions

2023    West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai, China (with Leopold Fine Arts)
2022    Realm of Flow and Variation, SPSI Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2021    A Room of My Own, ZhuQizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2018    HERSTORY, Himalaya Museum, Shanghai, China
2013    Polyphony, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, China
2011    Alsace Art Fair, France
2011    Shanghai International Art Fair, Shanghai, China
2010    Shanghai Spring Art Salon, Shanghai, China
2009    Shanghai International Art Fair, Shanghai, China
2008    The 7th Korea International Art Fair, South Korea