Jo Li
Painter · Author · Public Speaker
Jo Li is a Nigerian-born artist working primarily in oil. Her practice explores beauty, perception, identity, mythology and constructed reality through figurative painting, writing and public speaking.
In Art from an Alternate Timeline, she presents her paintings as artifacts from a parallel world where matriarchy is the underlying architecture of existence. Formal portraiture and the classical visual language of authority give shape to its inhabitants. Women occupy the centre of the image with presence, interiority and power.
With bases in the Phoenix area of Arizona, Southern California and London, Jo moves between painting, language and public thought. Her background in psychology informs a continuing interest in perception and the stories through which people understand reality.
Selected exhibitions & installations
Platform Store · Marylebone, London
Group installation · June 2025
ST.ART Gallery · London
Femme Forward: One Exhibition, Three Perspectives
Group exhibition · March 2025
Rancho Santa Fe · San Diego County, California
Private exhibitions and talks · 2021–2024
Selected talk
More Than a Muse: Reclaiming the Right to Be Seen
Equiano Room, London · April 2025
A talk on art, power, authorship and the female gaze.
Education
Psychology studies at Arizona State University and Truman State University.
Books
So You’re Living in a Simulation: A Handbook for the Recently Sentient
The 7 Habits of Master Procrastinators Who Somehow Manage to Survive
“Life is my muse. Life is my subject. Life is my instructor. Life is the only true original work of art, and I am simply an imitator.”
— Jo