Meet Yujia Li

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Yujia Li. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Yujia, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Family, friends, and beliefs are the three main influences that shape my understanding of the world and myself, helping me to find my purpose. Through interacting and communicating with others, I build deep connections with the people I care about, fostering feelings of empathy and compassion. These feelings drive my artistic creation, allowing me to portray stories that connect people with shared experiences.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a painter currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Ambiguity and concealment have been the central themes in my painting and ceramics practices. My approach to opacity originates from the fear of revealing my true self to my family. As a Chinese-Korean ethnic minority, I am rediscovering my ancestral heritage from my bloodline
and religion after leaving home. My work references Buddhist Jatakas tales (“Birth Story” which
concerns the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form), cultural
hybridity (based on my childhood memory), and archived photography (capturing the remnants
of the past).

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Compassion and understanding have been essential qualities in my journey because they enable me to see things from different perspectives, which is how I learn. These qualities are also crucial in art. To truly appreciate a piece of artwork, it is important they people put themselves in others like the artist’s shoes rather than making assumptions based solely on its visual and aesthetic aspects.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

Family dynamics and cultural clashes are the main sources of conflict within my family, mostly centered around the religious differences between my mother’s Christian and my own Buddhist beliefs. Since my mother’s conversion from Buddhism to Christianity, my religious practice has become taboo and difficult to maintain, especially when she tries to impose her religious routine upon the whole family. Our distinct teachings have exaggerated the pre-existing issues caused by the generational gap in our mother-daughter relationship. My solution to avoiding conflict with my mother is to conceal my beliefs, which is paradoxical with my desire to express the truthful emotions that I feel. In my works, I begin to explore this tension between domestic space and religious beliefs, where sacrificing one’s desire becomes necessary for familial peace.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yujiali.cargo.site/
• Instagram: yugaliii