Title: Extracting Grasshopper Skewers from Childhood
Artist: Li Xiaoqi
Date: 2009
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 120 x 120 cm
Condition Report: Back frame; good condition.
Provenance: Private collection, purchased from Hangzhou.
Signature and Inscriptions: Signed lower right corner, 'Li Xiaoqi 2009'.

Description:
This captivating work by Li Xiaoqi, titled Extracting Grasshopper Skewers from Childhood, features a hand delicately holding a wheat stalk adorned with grasshoppers. The painting employs free, expressive brushwork, creating a dynamic tension within the composition. The diagonal arrangement and the muted chromatic palette—dominated by modulated ochres—bring a sense of balance to the gestural intensity. Li’s characteristic style, blending vivid expressionism with an understated tonal range, is evident in this piece.

About the Artist:
Li Xiaoqi (b. June 1983, Shandong) graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2005 and currently resides and works in Chongqing. His works often depict dreamlike, indeterminate imagery, with figures that lack clear physiological details, evoking a sense of abstraction. Li’s art features subdued tones of black, gray, and brown, occasionally punctuated by deep red hues, creating a paradoxical balance between melancholy and spiritual transcendence. His distinctive visual language incorporates fragmented forms, deliberate distortions, and rhythmic tension, embodying his unique artistic methodology: "he does not describe, he experiences; he does not reproduce, he shapes; he does not collect, he explores."