Mellow Yue Li：Soft Fever

Soft Fever brings more than 30 drawings by Mellow Yue Li, presenting her recent contemplations on bodily experience and perceptual boundaries. The exhibition title refers to a feverish physiological state—dreamlike and visceral—where the distinction between self and the world becomes blurred during the process of creation. This mode of perception continuously affects how the artist constructs her imagery: plants and animals, volcanoes and deserts, water bodies and star trails—their edges dissolve and intertwine into a fluid entity.

Mellow’s inspiration often derives from her travel experiences. As she moves between different regions constantly, her work has gradually shifted from scrolls to small-scale pieces that are convenient to carry. Her medium—colored pencils—allows her to work in temporary dwelling spaces while creating soft, hazy textures through repeated layering. This mobile creative gesture shapes Mellow’s language of drawing: every scene carries an unfinished dynamism, as if the narrative will continue unfolding in the next time and space. Humid air in the tropics, changing light through the seasons, and plants with lush foliage become the primary visual elements in her drawings. Nipa palm fruits approach hair like tentacles (Nipa Palm Girl); branches and blood vessels spread together under the night sky (Blue Veins, Hearts Intertwined); a figure among bromeliad flowers touches the face of their reflection in water, indistinguishable between reality and memory (Fade into You); a panther wanders in the rainforest, a pool of water reflecting the animal’s eyes (A Tropical Night). The natural matter in the drawings embodies emotion and vitality; different species become sentient, conscious beings, traversing between the real world and imagined realms.

The artist also incorporates mythological elements from both East and West, drawing on shared motifs of transformation and incarnation to extend personal experience into broader emotional resonance. Soft Fever intends to present an existential state between lucid observation and immersion in dreams, creating a perceptual space where boundaries are indistinct and pointing toward multiple possibilities beyond everyday experience.

About The Artist

Mellow Yue Li is an illustration artist based between Shanghai and New York, and a graduate of School of Visual Arts, New York. Taking colored pencil as the primary medium, her practice revolves around imaginative explorations of nature and spirituality, interweaving themes of femininity and mysticism. Through her work, she builds connections and dialogues between diverse cultural contexts and inner perception. She has held a solo exhibition at Junior High LA Gallery in Los Angeles, and participated in group exhibitions at Kiblind Magazine in Lyon, Nucleus Portland in Los Angeles, Latitude Gallery in New York, and MadeIn Gallery in Shanghai. Her work has been featured and interviewed by Metal Magazine, It’s Nice That, Creative Boom, and Booooooom. She has collaborated with bands, magazines, and brands, including Khruangbin, Little Dragon, Vast & Hazy, as well as Nongfu Spring, PopSockets, Mossery, and Blumenhaus.