Hongli Li

Winner FAC Open Exhibition 2024

Hongli Li is a local artist with a long history of formal studies in oil painting and watercolour.

Born in Tianjin, China in 1974, Hongli Li graduated from the Normal College in Tianjin and became a fine arts teacher. He continued to study fine arts in Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. He was greatly influenced by a few famous artists as his teachers and made an outstanding progress in oil and watercolor painting. He is particularly celebrated in Chinese meticulous heavy color brushwork by applying natural minimal pigments in his paintings. Hongli had been exhibited his artworks in China and won many prizes locally and nationally. In 2006, he became a member of Tianjin Branch of the Chinese Artists Association. In 2024, Hongli proudly won the prize of Frankston Arts Centre Open Exhibition. In 2025, Hongli was selected as a finalist of Ripper Art Prize in Melbourne for one of his Thrive series watercolor paintings.

Awarded the main prize in the FAC Open Exhibition 2025 by curator Suzette Wearne, McLelland Gallery + Sculpture Park.

"I have selected Hongli Li's as the most outstanding work. This hyperreal rendering of a section of a poplar trunk executed in watercolor is startling in its detail and evocative power, capturing a specific of the day and a particular part of the year. The artist's unconventional composition is bold and compelling. Hongli Li's mastery of watercolour is plain to see and an exhibition of several of his works will be a magical experience for visitors to the Frankston Art Centre."

_{Image: Hongli Li, Under Frankston Pier (left). Winning artwork FAC Open Exhibition 2025 (right)}