Fanfan Li ( 李芳芳; pinyin: Lǐ fāng fāng), born in Shenyang, China, is a contemporary painter.

Biography

Fanfan Li grew up in an intellectual family. Both her parents were writers and journalists. Her mother was also a poet.

She studied varieties of traditional Chinese and Western art with great Masters: Yu Jigao in Nanjing, Shen Roujian in Shanghai.

 In 1979, she graduated from the Section of Architecture at the Design and Research Institute of China Metallurgical Construction.

 In 1986, she moved to New York and studied jewelry design at Fashion Institute of Technology.

 In 1989, she won the first prize award of Van Cleef & Arpels for Best Young Designer, by the Comité Colbert.

 Fanfan Li started a career as a jewelry designer at Van Cleef & Arpels New York, then Bulgari New York and Cartier Paris.

 She co-wrote three books on jewelry design, published by Schiffer Press, which are used as textbooks in FIT.

 During this time, Fanfan Li painted several series of paintings in Gong Bi style.

In 2002, she relocated from New York to Paris.

 The artist produced different forms of art. Her works were shown at many art events and exhibitions.

 In 2003, she painted the Boogie Bonheur and Atelier du Maître handbag collection for CELINE.

 One of her works was shown at the Paris Book Fair 2004. She dedicated the n°1 lithograph to former French President Jacques Chirac.

In 2007, she wrote and illustrated a trilingual autobiography "A Way Paved with Dreams" (La Voie du Rêve), You Feng Press, Paris.

 Fanfan Li created a series of paintings for the luxury art book "Journey of the West" (La Pérégrination vers l’Ouest), Les Heures Claires Press, which won the "Prix de la Nuit du Livre ® 2015".

In 2015, Fanfan Li was engaged in building up a new style more distinctively characterized by her own features.

Her paintings were exhibited in many French cities and foreign galleries: New York, Tokyo, etc.

Some of them are now held by collectors, private and public institutions, including Château de Villandry, Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, where her paintings are displayed next to ZaoWou-Ki…

Style

Fanfan Li's style rises above a combination of elements she has absorbed from Chinese as well as Western art, especially those from America and France. 

The traits of Symbolism, Néoplasticisme, and Bauhaus are creatively interwoven with nicety. Her works show her deep thoughts about how time, nature, and human destiny are related with each other.