He is an iconic figure of young new media artists who enjoys an infinite exhibition space online.

Li Hanwei's creations are adept at adopting commercials and films as metaphors. Through his research into means of communication, he uses video effects to establish a worldview in the virtual world that allows knockoffs and sci-fi to co-exist, which exhibits the intersection of today's cultural forms and identities.

In 2017, Li Hanwei co-founded the virtual contemporary art platform Slime Engine (www.slimeengine.com) with artists Fang Yang and Liu Shuzhen to create a virtual public space for viewers and artists alike. This space is a world in itself, where all notions related to existing public spaces are dissolved here. The Slime Engine redefines the rules of usage for online public space; with deft skills in computer technology and curatorial practice, the platform establishes a public that conforms to the virtual world's operating mechanisms.

Li Hanwei’s Liquid Health CG animations have been installed in a public space without being out of place. A variety of eye-catching advertisements is occupying public space in general. His work Liquid Health: The Creator, was part of the "Extreme Mix: 2019 Guangzhou Airport Biennale”. his giant digital screen perfectly integrated into the traditional residential area as its everyday experience. Li Hanwei's works have indeed presented a means of capital's transformation of public space: creating trends, landscapes, anxiety, and triggering consumption. The artist is well versed in the order "sign-myth-ideology" and attempts to construct a communication system adapted to the current process of globalization in China.

At the beginning of 2020, the Slime engine also adapts the traditional media of mass communication - the newspaper. Headlines was launched, including all the sections of a real newspaper from political news, weather forecasts, science and health, and even food and cooking. The VR panorama, the bullet commentaries and rotating texts and images, etc., afford the traditional means of communication with magical and cyborg features. However, to what extent of the public can a virtual space such as Headlines generate? And what is the relationship between freedom and equality in the operative context of this virtual media? Li Hanwei’s artistic practice raises many questions about the public in the virtual world.

Li Hanwei

Li Hanwei, born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in 1994, graduated from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts in 2018, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. Li’s practice adopts the forms of commercial advertisements and films as metaphors. Exploring various communication methods, the artist uses CG images to establish a worldview in the fictional world where counterfeit of the real world and science fiction coexist, as a way to present the intersection between contemporary culture forms and individual identities.

Li Hanwei has participated to exhibitions such as: “Sino-Wharf: from Chinatown to Red Internationalism”, OCAT, Shenzhen, China, 2020; “Recommendations of Institutions”, Boxes Art Space, Shenzhen, China, 2020; “Wild Metropolis”, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China, 2019; “Advent: Inventing Landscape, Producing the Earth”, Qianshao Contemporary Art Center, Shanghai, China, 2019；“Extreme Mix”, Guangzhou Airport Biennale, Guangzhou, China, 2019; “The Variable and The Generating”, MadeIn Gallery, Shanghai, 2019; “Liquid Health”, Goethe Open Space, Shanghai, 2019; “Hunting Cycle”, MadeIn Park, Shanghai, 2018; “Shanghai Hot the Beheaded Six”, Yell Space, Shanghai, 2018; Boundary, SIVA, Shanghai, China；BABEL7, Babelsberger Strasse 52, Berlin, 2018; "Diversity", École nationale supérieure d'art de Nice – Villa Arson, Nice, 2016. Li Hanwei nominated for “Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents” in 2020. Li Hanwei also co-operates the online contemporary art space Slime Engine with Liu Shuzhen, Fang Yang and Shan Liang since 2017. Li Hanwei has been involved in the conception and production of several exhibitions for Slime Engine.