Yushi Li selected as One to Watch from Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018
‘A PHD student at the Royal College of Art, Yushi Li shows a photograph from her series My Tinder Boys: portraits of naked, young, white men cooking and eating in kitchens. The picture on display in South London Gallery’s main building is of a sulky-looking looking youth with pink lips, sitting on a draining board. With one hand, he absent-mindedly rubs a strawberry against his thigh; the other hand is pressed against the counter top between his legs, partially covering his penis with his arm in the process. He looks sweet, vulnerable, decorative, and also angelically clean – the latter a surprising quality of a depiction of a Tinder hookup that is enhanced by the pale, milky light Li has achieved. The impact is arresting, and is a reminder of how rare it still is to apprehend the erotic female gaze in a gallery setting.’
