Li Hao: Balancing Fragility and Strength Through Sculpture

Artist, Architect, Founder of Creative SPARK, and the overall winner of the Visual Art Open 2025 Prize, Li Hao, has captivated audiences with his sculptural piece Pop Star. Renowned for his ability to balance fragility and strength in large-scale works, he brings a distinctive voice to contemporary sculpture.

Li Hao is constantly drawn to the tension between a stable inner core and a turbulent outer world — the delicate balance of finding strength in uncertainty. He reflects, "Growing up, my family life and my own personality were not especially stable. I’m not someone who was born with a strong sense of security. Very often I had to learn how to negotiate and wrestle with the world from a place of “not being that strong.”

He considers this dynamic in his work:

“I became fascinated by a certain state: something that looks dazzling, even a bit dangerous on the outside, but is actually quiet and steady inside. It’s like a ‘pop star’ standing at the edge of the world — lonely, but shining.”

The inner structure of Pop Star is a polyhedron derived from architectural geometry with a clear and robust structural logic with the exterior building assembled from PVC light, "It resembles an insect’s compound eye, or a luminous object that has fallen from outer space. I deliberately let “formal stability” and a sense of “visual instability” coexist: the surface seems to tremble, fracture and flow, while a geometric core inside refuses to collapse."

Li Hao hopes viewers will experience “both a sense of being ‘called’ into a romantic, almost theatrical light and, when they get closer, a feeling of being held and sheltered.” He aims for the work to be “resolute yet playful, romantic yet powerful.”

From Structural Awareness to a Socially Driven Artistic Practice

Li Hao trained and worked as an architect for many years, navigating a system where architects largely serve whoever funds a project, often leaving structural inequalities painfully visible. “When you work in less developed regions, that imbalance becomes very visible. You feel a deep sense of powerlessness, because many issues are structural, not something one ‘good project’ can fix.” When he founded his own Architecture studio, One Take Architects he set himself two goals, "one was to look after the “invisible corners” of society" and the other was, "to respond to the inner emotions and subtle needs that are often neglected." With that sense of mission, Li Hao began reshaping his practice through art and space — a path he has remained steadfast on ever since.

Pop Forest The Whisper

Pop Forest The Whisper

Turning this awareness into action, in 2017 he developed Program SPARK, a socially engaged art project aimed at empowering children and young people in under-resourced areas of China.

The project utilises everyday industrial materials such as shared second-hand bicycles and surplus plastic stools, while also integrating the cultural characteristics of local communities. By centring the voices of these underrepresented communities, the project promotes sustainable development and transformation, with a focus on addressing social issues like educational equity.

All production details of Program SPARK are publicly available on its website, making it an open-source project that anyone can replicate, improve, and reproduce. This initiative serves as a call for co-creation — a convergence of imagination, community, and action.

The project is the winner of the IAPA International Award for Public Art, received the iF Social Impact Prize and the BCAF Sustainable Design Award for Young Projects in 2021.

The project reflects Li's belief in art as a tool for social change — a force that extends beyond aesthetics to address urgent social issues. Program SPARK transcends the confines of the gallery, embedding itself within the deeper layers of social structures.

What the Transition to Art Revealed

When I asked Li Hao to reflect on his artistic journey, one profound realisation that has shaped his practice is,

"when space shifts from serving function to expressing emotion, many things are completely rewritten."

Li continues, "As an architect, using space for self-expression was a kind of luxury at the beginning. Buildings must respond to function, budget and regulations; it’s a profession with a strong sense of responsibility, and you can’t be careless with it. For a long time, the spatial skills, structural strategies and material languages I learned were mostly used to “deliver a better building.”

Li Hao - Inner Theater

Li Hao - Inner Theater

"When I started to move towards art, the first thing I had to do was to dismantle the service-based function of architecture — to temporarily strip space of its “use” and allow it to become a purer medium of expression. That transition was painful. Suddenly you lose a very clear reference point: no client, no brief, no cost plan. You are fully responsible for the question “Why does this work need to exist at all?” And that can feel empty and confusing.

But from that moment I began to understand that space is not just a container for behaviour; it can directly carry human emotions — fear, excitement, loneliness, joy. Structure, materials and light no longer exist only to support function; they can behave like wild animals released from a cage, running, roaring, showing vulnerability."

"This taught me that sometimes you have to step a little further away from the world in order to come closer to yourself. And once you are closer to yourself, when you turn back to speak to the world again, the connection often becomes more honest and alive."

Li Hao - Pop Star - Nexus 01

Li Hao - Pop Star - Nexus 01

Insights for Emerging Artists at the Start of Their Journey

When asked what guidance he might offer to emerging artists, Li Hao shared advice shaped by his own careful, reflective approach to creative practice, "If I were to offer a few pieces of advice, they might sound “slow,” but I think they matter...

First, don’t rush to “grow into a certain image” too quickly. In an age overflowing with images and information, it’s easy to be pulled along by trends, algorithms and other people’s success stories. But your own language often grows out of small, fragile, easily overlooked feelings. Learn to take good care of those subtle feelings first.

Second, spend a lot of time on making the work itself, rather than trying to prove that you are an artist. Keep making, failing, revising. In that process you slowly develop your own sense of judgment, instead of relying entirely on external systems of validation.

Third, allow yourself a period of not fully understanding what you’re doing. Sometimes creation happens a step ahead of consciousness. It may start as a vague urge, an uncomfortable question, a shape you can’t yet explain. Give it some time. When you look back later, you may discover that it has been quietly leading you forward all along.

If I had to summarise it in one sentence: It’s okay to move slowly — what matters is that you walk in a way that feels true."

Li Hao - Bubble Dandelion

Li Hao - Pop Star - Labyrinth

Redefining Artistic Success

For Li Hao, artistic success is defined by the way that he feels himself about his artwork rather than from external validations; "artistic success feels a bit like a competition with no referee. There is no clear opponent and no unified scoring system, yet it really is an ongoing contest — with your own inner self and with time." In Li's view:

"Success is vertical rather than horizontal: it happens more in the relationship between you and yourself, rather than in comparison with others. If one day you stand in front of your own work and feel a deep, genuine excitement — even a sense that “if life were to end right here in this moment, it wouldn’t feel wasted” — then that is probably a kind of success."

Insights for Prospective VAO Applicants

For Li, taking part in VAO made he feel that his, "practice was listened to and taken seriously. It also confirmed something important: that artists coming from very different regions and realities can still deeply understand and energise each other when we are honest about the questions we are working with."

If you’re an artist hesitating to apply to Visual Art Open 2026, Li advises: "Treat it as a chance to have a conversation with the world, not as an exam. The point is not to prove whether you’re “good enough,” but to see: how do your questions, your language, your sensitivities resonate in a larger field? Even if the result is not what you hoped for, the process itself — editing your portfolio, reflecting on your practice, writing about your motivations, re-photographing your work — gives you a much clearer understanding of what you are doing."

Li notes that if you’re selected, it can be a chance to experience “exhibition opportunities, exposure, a space to meet artists from many different countries and backgrounds face to face, and unexpected professional opportunities and collaborations.”

We're honoured that Li Hao will be bringing his emotional insights, creative knowledge and industry experience to the Visual Art Open 2026 Judging Panel.

Where to Explore Li Hao’s Work

Li Hao’s work spans multiple disciplines and platforms:

• Art Studio: atelierlihao.com

• Architecture Office: onetakearchitects.com

• Socially Engaged Art Practice: programspark.net

• Instagram: @atelier_lihao