Ever since elementary school, I was known as “the artist of the school.” Throughout my school years, I created large-scale blackboard murals, choreographed dance performances, organized community events, conducted choirs for singing competitions, and founded an award-winning dance community that continues to thrive more than two decades later.
Yet I never imagined that being an artist could be a profession. Instead, I spent many years studying and working in science, engineering, and marketing. It was only after entering art school—and unexpectedly participating in more than twenty exhibitions during my first year—that I realized I had always been an artist.
Since then, I have dedicated my life to making art. Over the years, my understanding of art has expanded beyond the studio. Through spiritual practice and self-inquiry, I have come to see life itself as a creative act. Living is making art. I believe that every person is born with the potential to be an artist—not only through what they create, but through who they become.
“In the profound sense, each human life has the potentiality of becoming an artwork. To that degree, each of us can become an artist in life with our finest creation being our own self.”
—— Ira Progoff, P296, At a Journal Workshop
My latest creation is a newborn self: MA Buddha—a playful embodiment of the laughing and dancing Maitreya Buddha—expressed through a YouTube channel.
Performance Workshop— Techno Tai Chi
Installation
Community & Art School—Kepler 452b, Berlin & World Wide
Sweaty Bush is a secret bi-monthly conscious gathering for womxn in Berlin
Community-based Performance
Sculpture
Painting & Drawing
Ceramic Art
Artist Bio
Ma Li is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Berlin and San Francisco. She is also the founder and director of Kepler 452b—a nonprofit organization creating energetic spaces in the form of art rave in many cities. Ma Li formulates dreamlike worlds influenced in part by her background in choreography and choir conducting in a collectivist society. With an MFA in painting from San Francisco Art Institute (2014), Ma Li has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Santo Foundation and Knight Foundation; a fellowship from La Napoule Art Foundation; and the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award etc. Known for her large scale upcycling performance installation, she was invited to be the judge for the Greenpeace art competition in 2018.
Ma Li has been a resident artist at Recology San Francisco, Momentum Worldwide, Vermont Studio Center, Elsewhere Museum, among others. She has exhibited in a range of museums, galleries, and festivals, including solo projects such as Kepler 452b, Deutsches Museum, Munich (2019); May Queen, Platte Berlin(2021); Techno Tai Chi, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2017); MA for Matriarchy, Archer Gallery, Vancouvor (2019), The Children of Surahamma, Musrara Festival, Jerusalem (2017), and Let Your Cosmos Burn, Manifesta 11 Biennale, Zurich (2016); Bits en Route, Momentum Gallery, Berlin (2016); Group shows include A.I.R Gallery (Brooklyn), Gallery 825 (Los Angeles), SOMArts (San Francisco), Napa Valley Museum, amongst others. Her work was included in a variety of collections and reviews of her work appeared in World Journal, VOA, KQED, China Daily, Broke-ass Stuart, Art World and other leading publications.
Art Commission Request
