Anna Li

Artist Statement

Using disabled embodiment as both subject and method, I aim to transform physical limits of my body into a critical and generative artistic language.

Originally from Ukraine, based in Nottingham, UK, I was trained in academic painting and shaped by Odesa’s conceptualism, my practice operates between ironic exaggeration and a deliberate refusal of productivity. Embracin interruption, and instability as integral to creative process, my oil paintings challenge dominant ideals of control, mastery, and aesthetic perfection.

Through recurring motifs of grids, lace structures, body fragments, wheelchair elements, and reflective surfaces, I interrogate systems of visibility, classification, and desire. These visual languages expose how bodies are organised and eroticised within cultural frameworks.

Across my work, I reposition the disabled body within art history as a complex political, and sensual subject. My practice challenges the assumption that disability is a limitation, instead proposing it as a critical lens through which to rethink representation, intimacy, and power.