• Between performance and presentation

    The Duality of Art is the Characteristic of Chinese Visual Arts Language, and a symbol that LAI CHI MAN persistently seeks within Chinese archetypes. This complementary or confrontational duality, commonly seen in figurative art and literature, is not the Yin-Yang dichotomy of philosophical ontology. Artistic duality may manifest as contrasts in texture and sensation—such as convexity and concavity, light and shadow, reality and illusion, thickness and thinness—or as relational concepts like motion and stillness, elegance and vulgarity, high and low, lofty and humble. It embodies the essential meaning conveyed through sensory imagery and serves as a structural framework to enhance artistic expressiveness.

    LAI CHI MAN's stone sculptures often develop around the contradictions and mutual resistance between form and concept. Works like "Up and Down,"  "Bump,"  "Rope and Bump," and "Rope and Stone" all stem from this concept. "Up and Down" features a monstrous protrusion emerging from the ground, with its lower end displaying countless tiny facets.

    While remaining faithful to his materials, the artist subverts them: the heavy, angular "lower" section contrasts with the smooth, rounded "upper" in "Up and Down"; the horizontal wave rhythm in "Bump" and the rough, vertically cut stone surface form two sides of a single entity. Meanwhile, the elongated, granular black beans and oval, smooth white jade in "Black Beans and Stone" juxtapose with the twisted, stretchy hemp rope and glossy, hard marble in "Rope and Stone," creating a dual confrontation.

    — Excerpt from Li Mingming, former Director of the Institute of Art Studies at National Central University, "Between Expression and Presentation"

  • The Tension of Space

    Some works titled "Between" (Between), It can be best be used to simply explain LAI CHI MAN's sensitivity to the tension transfer between the empty and the surface: or full or comfortable organic round shape, A V-shaped groove is constantly sharpened in different parts, Thinking of the graceful arc that the Italian painter Feng Tana (Lucio Fontana) cut on the canvas with a razor, The accuracy, clarity and destruction of the scalpel blade, To give new meaning to the things that Qin knew well, If the seed is dead, the new plant bud, Part of oneself is ready to accept things other than oneself: these sharp cuts are brought by LAI CHI MAN, It must be like a corner of the organic shape, Or the intense joy of Hepuos's piercing in the stone, The opposite concept of "presence", "movement" and "life and death" is not unique to Chinese people.

    — Huang Handi, a painter and art critic

  • The "Relationship" thinking

    In LAI CHI MAN's works, one can observe two parallel approaches. The first employs a single material to explore life's transformations and growth patterns, while the second combines contrasting elements to create conceptual or semiotic impacts. Through this cyclical interplay between these methods, Li's sculptural art achieves profound depth. This dynamic interplay ultimately coexists, imbuing his works with layered significance. Thus, the core theme of Li's creations revolves around the contemplation of "intermittence" (jian), as it is grounded in relational thinking. When viewed through this lens, objects cease to be static entities but become living, unified forms that constantly transition between states, perpetually evolving with vitality.

    — Excerpt from Minmei Feng's "LAI CHI MAN's Calm Progress"

  • Dream subject

    Inspired by Daoist metaphysics of the interdependence between being and non-being, LAI CHI MAN first developed poetic forms before evolving into landscape compositions that celebrate the earth's boundless freedom. His artistic journey from sculpture to non-sculptural explorations imbues his works with the essence of land art. In recent creations, each piece integrates multiple ready-mades—objects retaining their original creators' identities. When assembled, these elements symbolize the earth's gathering of diverse subjectivities. Ultimately, the land becomes the ultimate destination for all beings, regardless of their origins.

    ──Excerpt from Liao Renyi's "The Return of the Earth: LAI CHI MAN's Landscapes"

  • Sketching and Sculpture

    LAI CHI MAN's sketches serve as conceptual blueprints for his sculptural creations. When appreciating these works, one must engage with the sculptural intent: What formal content is conveyed through the plane? I once analyzed his sketches as a dialectical exploration of spatial concepts, illustrating that "the black circles in sketches – spatial forms inverted into solid masses." In planar vision, "once conceptual dialectics are extended to spatial expression, conceptual inversion appears inevitable. Since spatial configurations lack tangible references, the interplay of void and substance becomes a viable mode of thinking." LAI CHI MAN's sketches reflect spatial imagery. The solid and void in sculpture are inverted through abstract painting language, creating a contrast with physical objects – transforming the tangible into the intangible, and the intangible into the tangible – through black-and-white compositions that dramatize this transformation.

     – Excerpt from Jiang Yanchou's "Reflections of Spatial Imagery"