1963年生于云南昆明，1987年毕业于四川美术学院版画系，现为云南艺术学院教授。自上个世纪90年代至2009年一直在进行当代艺术绘画与摄影的创作，作品曾参加欧美及世界众多国家举办的中国当代艺术展，同时也参加了美国迈阿密、西班牙马德里、法国巴黎、俄罗斯莫斯科等艺术博览会。并在德国埃森、中国北京、上海、香港、成都等城市举办个人画展。作品被希腊雅典Fraissiras现代艺术博物馆、英国The Red Mansion艺术基金会、英国David Roberts艺术基金会、香港中国会、深圳美术馆、南京四方美术馆、程昕东国际当代艺术空间等公共机构收藏。2010年至今李季每年多次前往尼泊尔、印度、斯里兰卡、泰国的国家公园和野生动物保护区，以及中国西藏的羌塘草原、唐古拉山、青海的可可西里、陕西秦岭、云南高黎贡山、西双版纳、白马雪山等自然保护区，用影像创作了大量的关于亚洲野生动物的图片。同时，关注和纪录了如今人类和野生动物之间日益严重的冲突与危机。自2006年以来出版了近十部个人专著，其中2017年，由北京联合出版社与雅昌艺术中心联合出版了艺术大书《荒野纪实－亚洲野生动物》。 关于策展人 崔灿灿 崔灿灿是一名活跃在各个领域的独立策划人，写作者。策展的主要展览和活动从2012年开始近百场，群展包括夜走黑桥、乡村洗剪吹、FUCKOFF II、不在图像中行动、六环比五环多一环、十夜、万丈高楼平地起、2015-2019过年特别项目系列、策展课、九层塔等。曾策划的个展包括艾未未、包晓伟、陈丹青、陈彧凡、陈彧君、冯琳、韩东、何云昌、黄一山、姜波、厉槟源、刘港顺、刘建华、李青、李季、李占洋、牧儿、马轲、毛焰、琴嘎、秦琦、隋建国、石节子美术馆、史金淞、沈少民、谭平、王庆松、谢南星、夏小万、夏星、萧昱、许仲敏、徐小国、宗宁、政纯办、张玥、赵赵等。近几年获得的奖项，包括CCAA中国当代艺术评论青年荣誉奖，《YISHU》中国当代艺术批评奖，ART POWER多届年度展览奖和策展人奖，《艺术新闻》亚洲艺术贡献奖林肯策展人提名、《当代艺术新闻》年度最佳艺术家个展、北京画廊周最佳展览奖，以及多家媒体2013—2020的年度策展人或是艺术贡献奖等。 关于美术馆 昆明当代美术馆（CGK）由昆明冠江集团投资兴办，自2018年开馆以来，相继举办过“地缘笔记”、"连接时间的空间——中法建筑对话展"、“谱系+ ——1978年以来的云南油画”等重要群展；以及一系列个展，包括曾晓峰、唐志冈、马克·吕布、张春旸、曾孝濂、马云、于坚、何多苓、水雁飞、杜天荣、杨丽萍等。昆明当代美术馆立足于云南的历史脉络和地域风情，连接东南亚的地缘关系，通过客观地梳理云南与中国、乃至世界的当代艺术的互动，呈现艺术在地域性和历史性中的思考和实践，成为一座强调文化多样性和城市自然的当代美术馆。 CGK昆明当代美术馆开馆时间：周一：闭馆周二到周日：10：30am~21：30pm通过关注我们公众号加入CGK会员更快获取更多展览信息哦！ 了解更多信息，请访问：cgkunming.org联系邮箱：info@cgkunming.org A Party of Trees“When we come across a beautiful tree, it is an extraordinary thing. I wonder if our initial relationship to trees is aesthetic rather than scientific.” —Francis Halle Before science took shape, or before humanity emerged, trees had already long ago begun their own story. Trees have never been our resource. They have a much longer and far-reaching experience and potential. We must understand this if we are to depart from our anthropocentric perspective in viewing plants. Li Ji provides us with a different kind of gaze, an enchanting world where all things possess a spirit, the world of the knowledge, emotions and secrets harbored by trees. It was about eleven years ago, on the Terai Grasslands in Nepal, that Li Ji shot this first series of photographs about trees. Since then, he has traveled all over the tropics and subtropics of Asia, from India’s Deccan Plateau to Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan Rainforest, Sri Lanka's Yala Forest, and the Tibetan Plateau in China. At first, magical experiences were everywhere in the forests: the giant trees and soaring birds, the upset balances of space and proportion sturning his journeys into a tale of giants and elves. Li Ji's camera was notable to fully capture the height of a tree, only a glimpse from a single angle, full of a sense of wonder. Then, in recent years, the pace of his travels slowed, and his work began to revolve around the trees, photographing every part of the tree according to its shape. These giant trees went from object to subject, and the center of the story shifted in turn. I was first drawn in by the extent of Li Ji's travels, the fragmented notes, the small paths through dense forests, the lizards after the rain, the muddy ponds on the plains, or the phallic tropical plants of the night, seamlessly packed together. The large trees in particular really resemble giant portraits, or some mysterious form of monument. They are far beyond my understanding of nature and my grasp of the existential order. Li Ji has not only captured the fleeting emotions of the rainforest, he has also bestowed them with a larger historical framework.In Li Ji’s works, trees seem to have emotions, memories and the ability to communicate, and so, in the exhibition space, we have an enchanting party of trees. In the first dance of the trees, trees are the wisdom of the people, providing us with a variety of different paths, vitality continuing in ways beyond our imagination. Whether the cycles of the moon, sun and stars, or the changing of the four seasons, this is the autobiography of trees, which makes an invisible world tangible. In the second chapter, trees become an ancient memory, just how in every hometown and novel, there is always a giant tree, a witness to the rise and fall of generations, villages, and civilizations, forming an intangible record of the visible world in the rings of trees. In the final section of the exhibition, we seem to have traveled to an indistinct world. Here, trees in memory, trees in science and trees in aesthetics come together into a disordered yet poetic coda. Here, the heavens and the earth have not yet divided. Everything remains in the primordial chaos. The blooming and withering of the flowers in the forest goes unseen and unheard, but the world continues to unfold.These endlessly extending trees, this animistic vitality of nature, is boundless in form, impossible to grasp, far beyond our experience. These are not specimens tamed by science, or objects that can be penetrated by rational thought. They shelter the continued existence of humanity, but are also enough to threaten the foundations of human existence. They are worthy of eternal reverence. Reverence is the well spring of civilization and faith.The kind of reverence we would have waking up one morning, naked, in the dense mists of the rainforest. Curator: Cui Cancan CGK Opening Hours:Closed MondaysTuesday to Sunday: 10:30 – 21:30Follow our official WeChat for the latest information on exhibitions and events\ For more information, visit cgkunming.orgemail: info@cgkunming.org