Born in Beijing, China, Ying Li graduated from Anhui Teachers University (1974-77) where she taught 1977-83. She immigrated to the United States in 1983. She received an M.F.A. from Parsons School of Design, NY in 1987. She is Professor of Fine Arts and Department Chair, Haverford College.

Selected One Person Exhibitions
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (concurrent exhibition with Eve Aschheim); Lohin Geduld Gallery, NY; Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NY; Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, NH; List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA; The Painting Center, NY; Bowery Gallery, NY; Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, PA; Marie Salant Neuberger Campus Center Gallery, Bryn Mawr College, PA; Tompkins College Center Gallery, Cedar Crest College, PA; Enterprise House, County Mayo, Ireland and ISA Gallery, Umbria, Italy, Centro Incontri Umani Ascona, Switzerland.

Selected Two Person and Group Exhibitions 
American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY; The National Academy Museum, NY; Tibor de Nagy Gallery, NY; Lori Bookstein Fine Arts, NY; Chris Neptune Fine Arts, NY; Kouros Gallery, NY; Denise Bibro Gallery, NY; James Michener Museum, Doylestown, PA; Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Lancaster Museum, Lancaster, PA; Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Lancaster, PA; Hermitage Foundation Museum, Norfolk, VA; Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum, Cullowhee, NC; Rosemary Berkel and Harry L. Crisp Museum, Cape Girardeau, MO; Logan Gallery, Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY; Gross McCLeaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Greenhut Gallery, Portland, Maine; Valley House Gallery, Dallas, TX;, and the Museum of Rochefort-en-Terre, Brittany, France.

Selected Awards 
Henry Ward Ranger Fund Purchase Award, Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize for Painting and Certificate of Merit, all from the National Academy Museum, New York; Donald Jay Gordon Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Swarthmore College; Artist-in-Residence, Dartmouth College; other Residential Fellowships: Centro Incontri Umani Ascona, Switzerland; Valparaiso Foundation, Spain; Kahn-Mason Foundation Grant; Heliker–LaHotan Foundation; Vermont Studio Center; St. Mary’s College; Enterprise House Art Colony, Ireland; Chateau Rochefort-en-Terre, France; Aspen Institute Scholarship; Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Grant.

Selected Publications 
Li’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art Forum, Art in America, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Sun, New York Press, Cover, Artcricital.com, Abstract Art on Line, Painter’s Table, Hyperallergic.com and Morbihan France.

“My goal in painting is to capture nature, in both its toughness and vulnerability, and transmit all of its energy to the canvas. To this end I use intense colors, earthy textures and calligraphic lines, working in the zone where abstraction and representation shade into each other. My interests and training in Chinese painting and calligraphy lead me to a brushwork that is at once free and disciplined.

Color lies at the core of my painting process. I use it to convey mood and memory, and to express a particular sense of place and time. In my painting, color, line and plane interact, pushing each other until they reach a harmony, a unity. Like a jazz musician, I hear the lines of saxophone, bass and drums, each improvising in response to the others, swinging the piece forward. If and when these responses reach their climax, the painting is done.”

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