Max Li is an interdisciplinary artist from China, based in Chicago.

Working across photography, tintype, object-making, installation, and contemporary digital tools, his practice explores how meaning is shaped through encounter, memory, ritual, and lived experience. Often working through time-based processes, social exchanges, and site-responsive interventions, his work investigates the relationship between the sacred and the everyday, attending to how meaning accumulates through improvisation, repetition, participation, and duration.

Li holds an MFA from the University of Chicago and a BFA with Honors from the University of California, Irvine. Beyond his studio practice, he works across cultural programming, design, and creative strategy as Art Director of Big House Studio, a Chicago-based creative studio focused on collaborative design and production. He also develops arts and cultural initiatives with institutions and communities, including his work at the historic First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, where he helps activate civic and sacred spaces through exhibitions, performances, workshops, communal gatherings, and other site-responsive public programs.


For conversation, showing, and other thoughts,
please email: omaxlgzo@gmail.com