Photograph courtesy of Andrew James Weis.
Michelle Shengyu Li is an interdisciplinary artist born in Vancouver, Canada, based in Baltimore, USA.
Meditating on natural and social phenomena, she explores diasporic mythos and the poetics of belonging with elements both ephemeral and eternal (such as light, air, fire, time, and the ecological). Working primarily in sculpture, paper, and installation, she fosters companionship to her objects through acts of performance and belief. To build resilient cultures for transient life, human or not, these offerings of attention and care beckon and surrender like a breath or a gust of wind.
Li received a BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where she co-curated the exhibition If Birds Could Fly: On Speculative Futurisms. Her work has been shown in various exhibitions throughout Baltimore including her solo show, Where the Light Blows (Gateway Gallery, 2024). She is a 2025 fellow at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft and her team, Living Records, was recently recognized as a finalist and recipient of the Outstanding Art prize at the 2025 Biodesign Challenge.
Contact: michelleshengyuli@gmail.com
Instagram: @michellesyli
Meditating on natural and social phenomena, she explores diasporic mythos and the poetics of belonging with elements both ephemeral and eternal (such as light, air, fire, time, and the ecological). Working primarily in sculpture, paper, and installation, she fosters companionship to her objects through acts of performance and belief. To build resilient cultures for transient life, human or not, these offerings of attention and care beckon and surrender like a breath or a gust of wind.
Li received a BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where she co-curated the exhibition If Birds Could Fly: On Speculative Futurisms. Her work has been shown in various exhibitions throughout Baltimore including her solo show, Where the Light Blows (Gateway Gallery, 2024). She is a 2025 fellow at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft and her team, Living Records, was recently recognized as a finalist and recipient of the Outstanding Art prize at the 2025 Biodesign Challenge.
Contact: michelleshengyuli@gmail.com
Instagram: @michellesyli
Selected Works
Still Fire
Instrument
Long Time (Ginkgo)
Flight Speculation I — Exhaustion
Flight Speculation II — Anchoring
Between Blood, Breath and Sea
(血脉，不息，守望)
Meditations I — my god is dark
“god’s eye” / “god in a seed” I
“god’s eye” / “god in a seed” II
Untitled (Portrait)
To Bury a Bird
1+1+1+1+1
In Response to Explanation
noon
First Touch
How To Make A Wish
Visualization of a Wish
still life
Selected Exhibitions
Where the Light Blows (Solo Exhibition, 2024)
If Birds Could Fly: On Speculative Futurisms (Curation, 2024
michellesylistudio@gmail.com