Day and Night

The world is full of opposites, essential for dichotomous reasoning: big and small, square and circle, sweet and salty, black and white all facilitate simple thinking based on contrast. Zhao Li also embraces two polarities: day and night. However, rather than settling into their differences, the artist explores the journey that, shaped by time, leads from one to the other. Zhao Li is fascinated by the continuous transitions between light and darkness, where illumination and shadow exist in absolute reciprocity and connection. 

Thus, the sculpture tells the story of a marble cube—rigid by definition—that softly rests upon its pedestal, playfully challenging its own perfection. Its surfaces, sometimes day and sometimes night, capture and reflect light through delicate surface treatments, creating a shifting interplay of colors as they receive and return the light. 

"Clauzetto Marble is excellent to work with," says the artist, "comfortable and well-suited to my personality. Some materials are hostile at times, demanding a battle, whereas this marble immediately responded to my work with softness." 

Francesca Agostinelli

Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, Zhao Li pursued her early artistic education and graduated in 1987 from the Academy of Art and Design at Tsinghua University. 

Since then, she has participated in numerous international sculpture and painting exhibitions, winning several awards. More than a hundred of her works are housed in museums, private and public collections, parks, and art galleries across 23 countries, including China, the USA, Europe, South Korea, Mexico, Oman, Argentina, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Taiwan. 

In 2008, she won the Excellence Award at the Olympic Landscape Competition Works Exhibition in Beijing during the Olympic Games. In 2009, she exhibited at a sculpture exhibition organized by the Ministry of Culture at the National Art Museum of China. She is a member of the China Artists Association and the China Sculpture Institute, as well as an honorary member of the Society of Artists in Quebec, Canada.