Li Donglu was born in Guangdong, China in 1982. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and from the Painting Department of École des Beaux-Arts de Versailles in France. Since 2004, he has lived and worked in Paris, France.
Li Donglu draws on classical Western draftsmanship alongside Chinese pictorial thought, orchestrating light, colour, and precision to open contemplative, cosmological vistas. In his works, Greco-Roman sculptures appear wedged between rocks in sombre landscapes, figures suspended between civilisations. Working in oil paint, he constructs dramatic dreamscapes where nature becomes a theatre for cultural memory and surreal displacement.
From 2009 to 2010, he was an artist-in-residence at the Château de Padiés, Lempaut, France. Over the years, he has exhibited more than 30 solo and group exhibitions, including two major group exhibitions in 2024: The Writings of Today are a Promise for Tomorrow, curated by Martina Köppel-Yang, Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Guang Mei: L’église des Cordeliers en échos, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China; École Supérieure d’Art d’Avignon, France.
The French May Arts Festival Associated Project New Voices in Paris Now: Between Memory and Matter at Alisan Atelier, Hong Kong in 2026 is the gallery's first time to work with the artist.
