Li Zhanyang

“My fondness for observing human society began from a young age,” writes Li Zhanyang, who transforms his observations into expressive bronze sculptures. Though he was taught to sublimate reality into pure form, he could not strip the life out of his art. “This is . . . connected to my time spent as kid at the train station,” he explains. “As a result of my time there, there was no way I could approach sculpture with the saintlike purity that was expected of me by my teachers. Instead, my urge was always to explore out-of-the-way places, secret places, in search of uncovering a truer picture of human nature.” Visitors to an exhibition of Li’s work might find a stack of renminbi, a horse mounting a woman, or an expansive scene of patrons carousing at a bar.