Born in Guangzhou, Amy Hui Li studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London before completing a Masters in Painting from the Royal College of Art. Encountering a wide range of media through her studies and particularly inspired by fashion and textiles, Li began to incorporate felt and laser-cut fabrics into her early experimental hanging works. 

Her work follows the tradition of Extended Painting, a practice contemporary artist Mark Titmarsh describes in his 2017 book as a “radical refiguring of the presence of the painted image.” Not limited by the 2-dimensional plane of the canvases, Li’s artworks interactively sprawl onto the wall or are activated by directed projection of light. 

Since graduating Li has exhibited widely across London, New York, and Taiwan. In 2024, Li participated in Unit’s group exhibition Worlds Beyond, exemplifying the show’s theme of interweaving organic, mineral and corporeal elements and connecting form and space beyond the confines of the canvas. 

Inspired by the interdisciplinary work of Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin and the textile practice of Celia Pym, Li experiments with handmade felt and organza, liberating her materials by working very much outside the lines. The dynamic, textural hanging works also express the idea of destruction as itself a form of creation.

Li imagines the canvas as a body, onto which external forms can reveal underlayers of emotion. What Li calls “hidden emotions”, and Kapoor labels the “inner self”, drive the balance between the inner and outer self, the physical and emotional, in Li’s work. Red felt and oil painting reminiscent of blood vessels or muscle tissue emphasises the corporeal focus while a symbolic use of colour and gestural form projects a certain passion and intensity. The tearing of fabric and the variable opacity in her work projects a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. Each canvas represents an extension of the artist’s body, exposing her inner self and challenging the viewer to reflect on their own internal emotions.