Caught in the Net

Li-Hill is a Canadian visual artist currently based out of Brooklyn, who employs painting, illustration, stenciling, and sculptural elements within his works.  With a background in graffiti and mural painting and a degree in Fine Arts, his works range from smaller multiples to enormous murals that explore industrialization, scientific breakthrough, man versus nature and information saturation.  He incorporates found objects and unconventional materials to structure complex multi-layered pieces that are as aesthetic as they are thought to provoke. Li-Hill possesses a BFA from OCAD and has traveled and shown in countries such as Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Mexico, and China.  He has had works shown in such national institutions as the National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of Ontario and the Portsmouth Museum of Art in New Hampshire.

Li-Hill's work attempts to decipher the complexities of the rapid development in our modern age. Through the western gaze Li-Hill points to the devastating effects of capitalist culture on the individual psyche, his work serves as a template for the ramifications felt on a global scale. The work mirrors the perception of the westerner attempting to comprehend, disentangle and redress. Born out of suppression, it becomes a manifestation portraying the skewed image of the imprint our culture has globally. To create these complex images Li-Hill blurs the lines between the imposed disciplines of the art world such as graffiti, graphic design, painting and drawing to disrupt the concepts of what is considered high and low-brow art. Through the storm of imagery and density, there is also a beauty that surfaces from this fragile balance. Inspired by the precariousness of the work on the street, ephemerality is injected into the core of the work, furthering its unsettling nature.