CURATORIAL STATEMENT

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Catherine Li is a London-based curator, originally from China, whose practice centres on site-specific exhibition, public art programme, participatory curation, and digital archiving. Her work engages with curatorial practice as a form of social critique, bringing important issues and fostering dialogue. Li views curating as a way to contribute to cultural creation, with exhibitions as testing grounds for innovation, research, and development—spaces that not only showcase art but also cultivate and shape communities.

Committed to experimental and diverse programming, Li has introduced UK audiences to both emerging and established international artists. She has worked with established mid-career artists such as Jyll Bradley and Andrew Bick, pioneering figures like Shirley Cameron, alongside emerging talents, fostering artistic exchange across different career stages. This approach was exemplified in her recent exhibition Afterwalls (2024) at Millbank, London, where she brought together 15 artists, ranging from art school graduates of the 1960s to the present, highlighting intergenerational dialogue and artistic development. In Making Expansive (2024), an international group exhibition held at the Austrian Cultural Forum London (ACF) and supported by the BMKÖS fund, she curated works by a dozen artists from Austria and the UK.

Li has also been consistently reimagining curatorial formats. During her curatorial residency at the ACF London, she launched Artist Lunch Box (2023–ongoing), a cross-cultural exchange between artists from London and Vienna. This initiative, in partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, involved over 50 artists and promoted their creative collaboration across both physical and virtual platforms. Her curation also extends to projects like Cad Red Closet: Performance Arts Night (2024) and Peckham Workshop Festival (2024), both held at Peckham Levels, London. She co-initiated Skechibition (2022-ongoing), a role-play card game aimed at a deeper understanding and knowledge exchange about roles and power dynamics in the art industry. The game was first launched at Conway Hall Library in London and has since been evolving with different participating groups.

Li believes curation is a dynamic, ongoing process. For her, the relationship between curator and artist evolves through collaboration, with each project becoming a shared journey of conceptual development. Working with ambitious artists, she facilitates site-specific commissions, helping them to adapt and expand their work in response to the unique cultural and spatial contexts of each exhibition venue.

Beyond her independent curation, Li serves as the space manager for UAL Professional Practice Studios and Exhibition Space at Peckham Levels. With a strong track record of curatorial projects in this role, she supports and connects researchers, academic staff, and students with local communities, merging institutional influence with grassroots cultural interaction to advance a more community-oriented approach to art and space-making.

Li holds a Master’s degree with Distinction in Culture, Criticism, and Curation from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honors in Art History and Curating from Renmin (People’s) University of China.