Singapore
Raina Kim Li
Artist Profile
Born in Singapore, Raina Kim Li was trained in and practiced architecture until 2014. Having lived in several different places- New York, Santiago, Tokyo and Silicon Valley before finally settling back home, her art has evolved over the years from an outward expression of self, to casting the eye inwards on the workings of the heart, mind, and spirit. She works primarily in oils & acrylic, and a variety of materials like pastels and pigment powder. The one constant in her work is her practice of rumination while in the act of painting, using creation as meditation. This results in the materiality of medium and colour, and the ‘mark’ or stroke, which is the imprint of the artist and the state of mind, which she believes is the basic tool of abstract art. Her works are often done by meditating on verses from the Bible, various poems and literature, that feed into an existential narrative, resulting in a mood or landscape of the mind- the pastoral abstract.
RAINA KIM LI
91 x 122cm
Mixed Media on Canvas
2021
Based on the poem, “Go to the Limits of Your Longing” by Rainer Maria Rilke, in Book of Hours. This painting is about how the internal landscape of the mind’s eye is influenced by an instinct of trust in what you were created for, and created to do. It is a call to venture into the darkness of ourselves with bravery, knowing that the deep overhaul that personal growth requires is not a lonely task. Each person contains multitudes inside of them, each with their unique interior geography of beauty and terror.