"Li Yuan-chia: Artist, Curator, Poet and Archivist"
2001-01-27 until 2001-03-01
Camden Arts Centre
London, , UK

At once an artist, curator, poet and archivist, Li Yuan-chia's work embraces the ordinary and the everyday at the same time as it offers a glimpse into the cosmic and the universal. His inclusive approach to art and life anticipated the attitude and practice of many of today's contemporary artists. Defying easy categorisation, he has tended to slip through and between the histories of art and yet Li Yuan-chia ranks among the most original and radical of post-war artists.

This exhibition draws together different strands of Li's career and work - from his early drawings and paintings through to his installations, sculptural reliefs and extraordinary photographs and films. Li Yuan-chia marks a departure from the traditional retrospective, focusing predominantly on Li's photography and the development of the 'Point' as a formal and conceptual device through which he scrutinised the world. The exhibition will be the first major showing of this remarkable artist's work in the UK.

Born in China, Li Yuan-chia studied art in Taiwan where he was considered to be one of the founding fathers of Chinese abstract painting in the 1950s. Travelling from Taiwan to Italy and then to England, he arrived in London in the 1960s to exhibit at David Medalla's and Paul Keeler's Signals gallery and later showed with the Lisson Gallery. After leaving London in 1968, he spent the remainder of his life in Cumbria, establishing the LYC Museum in his own home. His generosity of spirit led him to create opportunities for over three hundred artists and poets, including Andy Goldsworthy and Shelagh Wakely.

Supported by the Arts Council of England with National Lottery funds, London Arts and The Henry Moore Foundation.

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