The Lamar Dodd School of Art welcomes its newest Photography Fellow Amiko Li (b. 1993, Shanghai). The Photography Fellowship is an ongoing program at the School of Art that provides a recent MFA graduate with a year of teaching experience and studio support.  Li will spend the 2019-2020 academic year teaching two studio courses within the photography area in both the fall and spring semesters, participating in formal graduate-level photography critiques, and actively pursuing creative work.

Amiko Li is a visual artist working in photography, text and video. He completed his undergraduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) received an MFA from Rutgers. Most recently he has been living and working in New York. His works explore the paradox of intimacy and distance.

Li’s images have been described by Collector Daily as a, “Poetic tale of shared vulnerability. Enigmatic and melancholic, these photographs are acutely observant, asking us to see the edges of elusive human connection, where we interact but somehow fail to fully engage, leaving behind an afterimage of emptiness. Put together in the visual narrative of a photobook, they present a layered and complex portrait of personal development, where delicate gestures reach out with tentative grace.”

He is the recipient of the PDN The Curator Award, Center Project Launch Award, and Royal Ulster Academy Portrait Prize. Exhibitions include Abrons Arts Center, New York; LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University, New York; Ulster Museum, Ireland; Thorvald Meyers 51, Norway; Beijing World Art Museum, China; and Belfast Photo Festival, Ireland. Publications include Adbusters; American Chordata; Esquire Russia; Juxtapoz; and New Yorker Photo.

The Photography Fellow program provides recent MFA graduates with an opportunity to teach and research in the robust and active community of the Photography department. The School of Art has hosted eight fellows in the nine years since the program was established. Fellows are mentored by faculty and encouraged to utilize the facilities and resources of the School to create work for a solo exhibition in the spring semester of their first year.