Biography

Li Shan is a Chinese contemporary artist and a pioneer of BioArt. He was born in Lanxi, Heilongjiang Province in 1942. Li studied at Heilongjiang in 1963 and attended the Shanghai Theater Academy in 1964. He taught at college of Shanghai Theater Academy after graduation. Retired at 2002. Now living in Shanghai and New York. In the 1960s, Li Shan started to engage in contemporary art practices. The Propagation series and the Rouge series are important works from that period, both of which were selected for the “China/Avant-Garde Art Exhibition,” the 45th Venice Biennale, and the 22nd Sao Paulo Biennale. Li Shan was also one of the main participants in the New Wave Chinese art movement in the 1980s.In 1993, Li Shan began investigating the issue surrounding life science through his art practice. With molecular biology as the scientific foundation, Li completed-at the genetic level-the first BioArt article the history of art titled Reading in 1998. Li published the BioArt article The story of Fish and Butterfly. The BioArt The Pumpkin Project was completed, and it was exhibited at ShanghART Gallery.