Our recent graduate, Simon Dongxing Li, is only 19 years old but is already one of the finest local artists of his age. He held his first highly successful solo art exhibition just before his high school graduation at the OCAT art district in Shenzhen from June 19–23.
The theme of his exhibition was “Behind My Name,” in which he tells his story as a 19-year-old Korean-Chinese boy raised in four distinct cities. Having lived in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, Simon is an exemplar of an AIS Global Citizen. Simon describes his artistic style as “very Asian,” while his medium is “very Western.” He envisions his exhibition to “break the barrier of languages and cultures and to tell a story through art.” He catered his work to a wide audience by publishing his promotional and explanatory materials in five languages: Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean.
Simon joined AIS as a junior two years ago. “I was shy when I was younger,” Simon recalled, “but now my friends find me bold in my artistic expression.” As Simon described in his personal statement:
High school was the turning point of my life. In my first year studying in full-English in AIS, I faced many difficulties learning and communicating with others. But with the help from classmates and teachers, I soon adapted to the community. At the end of 2008, I organized a school art exhibition, Language Dream. This exhibition was inspired by the languages spoken at my school. In Language Dream, we posed the question: ‘How can students communicate visually in this fast-changing world?’. Although I made many mistakes within my displayed works—such as the use of color and consistency of style—Language Dream turned out to be a great exercise.”
Emboldened by such valuable experience at AIS, Simon fulfilled part of his dream with his first solo art and design exhibition in June 2010.
Simon’s biggest motivating figures and idols are his Korean grandparents, who survived the Korean War and the difficulties of migration. In his serial painting, “Inheritance Dream,” he portrayed his cultural upbringing by juxtaposing Korean drums and the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower with a dream image from his grandfather—where the Statue of Liberty holds Chinese scripts alongside a flying kite. Simon recalled that his grandfather always encouraged him to explore the Western world at an early age.
His favorite art piece at the exhibition was a pair of coupled pieces depicting him shouting into a toilet bowl, symbolizing his difficult childhood in a single-parent family. Even though he tries to flush down his troubles, he can never get rid of them because he himself is being pulled into the spiraling waters by a viscous spirit. Another interesting piece by Simon depicts scrambled mahjong tiles and Korean poker cards, in which he transforms his culture shock and identity crisis into another form of artistic expression.
Simon credits AIS with providing many opportunities to develop his artistic talents, such as designing school posters, working on the yearbook, and holding his own art exhibition. It was during these two important years that he incubated his ideas and received inspiration for his public exhibition.
Earlier this year, with the encouragement and nomination of his art teacher, Ms. Jannel Chan, he competed against some of the top art students in Hong Kong and was chosen as an Arts Ambassador for the Arts Ambassadors-in-School Scheme. This program, organized by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), encourages students to take their passion for the arts beyond campuses and into the wider community. Additionally, Simon and his team received second runner-up for logo design and first runner-up for poster design at the Hong Kong 18 Districts ID Design Competition, part of the Kowloon City rebranding project.
Simon is currently studying at Parsons The New School for Design in New York.
