Li Hongwei, Allegory of Balance – Streamline #4, 2026, fired porcelain, stainless steel, 59 x 25 ⅗ x 17 ¾ in. (150 x 65 x 45 cm)
Discover two compelling new exhibitions at Alisan Fine Arts this month, bringing together distinct artistic perspectives on material, time, and our relationship with the world around us. Opening Nov 13, Finding the Balance marks Li Hongwei’s first solo exhibition in New York, showcasing his innovative interplay of Chinese porcelain and metalwork. Celebrate the opening at a reception from 11am–4pm, with an exhibition walkthrough at 2:30pm. Debuting Nov 19, Ephemeral Grounds brings together Mark Baugh-Sasaki, Pan Caoyuan, and Yeoh Choo Kuan in a compelling exploration of impermanence, the passage of time, and our evolving relationship with the landscape. Two exhibitions, four distinct artistic visions—don’t miss the opportunity to experience them!
Li Hongwei: Finding the Balance
November 13 – December 23, 2026
Opening Reception: November 13, 11am-4pm
Exhibition Walkthrough: November 13 at 2:30pm
120 East 65th St, NYC
Based between Princeton, NJ and Beijing, China, Li is a unique artistic voice within the Chinese diaspora. He has taken the production of Chinese porcelain and metalwork into his own hands, harnessing these mediums to create his own contemporary vocabulary.
In 2005, Li Hongwei left China to study ceramic art at the New York State College of Ceramics (Alfred University), receiving his MFA in 2007 and continuing to teach in New York for several years. At the same time, Li embarked on a remarkable exploration of ancient Chinese ceramics, and he began to fuse porcelain with contemporary materials, developing the various series of artworks on view in the current exhibition.
One of the artist’s more significant discoveries involves the unpredictable glaze effects that appear in his ceramics—crystalline blooms that emerge at specific temperatures, or ‘atmospheres’, that he engineers within his kilns. These effects have existed since the Song Dynasty, although they have only been appreciated by a small audience over the centuries; Li’s efforts to master these crystalline glazes have led to works that are unlike any that have come before. His sculpture “transcends the monochrome examples of the Song dynasty, yet is more organic and mysterious than the Qing Dynasty examples, decorated with underglaze cobalt blue or copper red” (Andrew L. Maske, University of Kentucky).
In terms of contemporary materials, Li’s medium of choice is stainless steel. He fuses, stacks, and embeds his ceramics into the highly reflective metal, using the light from the polished steel to exaggerate and accentuate his ceramic figures. In his Xuan series, the fluid, composite forms appear as water droplets frozen in time; in Upwelling of Gravity, the ceramic and steel appear to rise upward from their base. His perfectly tilted Origin works are as playful as they are regal, and their egg-like forms are echoed in Allegory of Balance, his most monumental body of work, made up of totemic structures that resemble polished, stacked stones.
This exhibition features a new series for the artist, as well—Li calls it Empty Vessel. The series takes the most fundamental form of vessel—the bowl—as its starting point, yet deliberately dissolves its functional reference, transforming it from an object of containment into a structure about emptiness itself. The sculptural wall pieces recall the concave, mirrored works of Anish Kapoor, but their curved, ceramic edges imbue the series with a sense of warmth, juxtaposing the polished steel surface in the middle of each vessel. According to Li, “The vessel exists through emptiness, and emptiness becomes visible through the vessel. The series translates the Eastern philosophical notion of ‘emptiness as receptivity’ into a contemporary language, allowing form to recede before space itself, so that ‘empty’ becomes the true subject.”
To learn more, click here.
Ephemeral Ground
November 19 – December 23, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov 19, 6-8pm
Opening November 19, Ephemeral Ground features three artists from across the globe. Their work nevertheless shares investigations into ephemerality, the passage of time, and humanity’s changing relationship to the landscapes that surround us. Despite their distinct visual languages, the works of Mark Baugh-Sasaki (San Francisco), Pan Caoyuan (Hangzhou), and Yeoh Choo Kuan (Kuala Lumpur) reveal an underlying exploration of liminal spaces, navigating the fluid boundaries between place and time.
To learn more, click here.
