Li Yukun
Li Yukun · Da Xiong · Art Critic / Curator / Researcher
Li Yukun — Chinese Art Critic
Li Yukun, writing under the pen name Da Xiong, was born in Pingdingshan, Henan, in 1988 and lives in Beijing. He is an art critic, curator and researcher, and the editor and publisher of the WeChat account Yiyishu (呓艺术) — WeChat Official Account. This website collects the art criticism, manuscripts and curatorial archive he has produced over more than a decade.
He has written on contemporary art for over ten years and completed five book manuscripts, close to three million Chinese characters in total — Intervention: Art, Symbiosis, and Place-Based Practice in China, The Weight of History: Anselm Kiefer and the Rematerialisation of Contemporary Art, The Methodological Legacy of Joseph Beuys, On the Failure of Contemporary Art, and The Folded Contemporary — Non-Western Contemporaneity and the Triadic Structure of Chinese Contemporary Art. His method rests on a “symptomatic reading” and an “archival intervention”: every judgement must return to verifiable reality rather than remain trapped in the self-circulation of concepts. All five are complete and awaiting publication.
He has curated more than thirty exhibitions and worked with nearly two hundred artists, following a three-step framework — social reality, curatorial mechanism, artistic response. For him, curating is a field for testing theoretical assumptions, not a commercial service detached from research.
His central proposition is summed up in one line — art as embrace（艺术是一场拥抱）: criticism should not become a new discourse of power, but should establish a real exchange of energy between art and the public. His writing and curating of more than a decade revolve around a single question — how contemporary art can genuinely intervene in society, rather than circulate within a closed system.
For commissions, curatorial proposals, lectures or citation requests, write to yiart1001@gmail.com, or leave a message with the journal Yiyishu (呓艺术) on WeChat. Full contact details are on the Contact page.