Chinese Empresses Arrive at Wellesley Free Library
This July 2026, Xiang Li Art is delighted to bring the Chinese Empresses collection to the Wellesley Free Library in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Throughout the month, visitors can encounter a selection of Xiang Li’s portraits inspired by the remarkable women of China’s imperial history. Each work invites us to look beyond familiar historical narratives and discover empresses whose intelligence, resilience, creativity, and influence deserve to be studied and remembered.
Xiang Li developed her artistic practice during her 37-year career as a master artist at the Forbidden City in Beijing, where she specialized in traditional Chinese painting, restoration, and cultural preservation. Her original empress portraits are meticulously painted on silk using Chinese watercolor techniques and mineral and gemstone pigments. The collection now includes more than 200 women from across China’s dynasties.
Join Us for a Free Opening Reception
We warmly invite the community to meet artist Xiang Li and her daughter and creative partner, Fei Wu, during a special evening at the library.
Monday, July 20, 2026
6:00–8:00 PM
Wakelin Room, Wellesley Free Library
530 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA
Free and open to the public
The reception will include artist talks, stories from the Chinese Empresses collection, light refreshments, and hands-on arts and crafts activities for children, adults, and families. Guests are welcome to explore the artwork, ask questions, and enjoy a relaxed evening of art, history, and community connection.
Registration is appreciated and helps us prepare refreshments and creative materials, but the event remains free and open to everyone.
Art as a Bridge Between Generations
Public libraries hold a special place in our communities. They welcome people of different ages and backgrounds to learn, reflect, and encounter stories they may not have discovered elsewhere.
Presenting the Chinese Empresses at the Wellesley Free Library gives these historical women a new opportunity to be seen—not only as distant royal figures, but as individuals who navigated family, politics, tradition, responsibility, and change.
For Xiang and Fei, the exhibition is also part of an ongoing mother-daughter collaboration. Together, they share Xiang’s artwork through exhibitions, storytelling, books, educational programs, and multisensory activities that make traditional art more approachable for contemporary audiences.
The exhibition will remain on view at the Wellesley Free Library throughout July 2026. We hope you will visit the collection and join us on July 20 for a joyful evening celebrating art, history, and the enduring stories of extraordinary women.
Bring a Xiang Li Art Exhibition to Your Library or Community Space
Xiang Li, Fei Wu, and their team—Tripti Gore Chandorkar and Adam Leffert—also work with libraries, hospitals, cultural organizations, community centers, schools, and other public venues to plan and install exhibitions featuring Xiang Li’s many collections.
Available collections include Chinese Empresses, zodiac paintings, pandas, dragons and phoenixes, floral works, Guanyin, Dream of the Red Chamber, and other selections that can be adapted to different audiences, spaces, and programming goals.
The process is designed to be easy and collaborative. Our team can help with:
- Selecting the right collection and number of works for your space
- Reviewing wall dimensions, layout, traffic flow, and installation needs
- Preparing exhibition text, artwork labels, educational materials, and promotional content
- Coordinating talks, workshops, book signings, family activities, and community programming
- Shipping high-quality giclée canvases to most locations across North America
- Supporting installation planning before, during, and after the exhibition
Our museum-quality giclée canvases allow venues to present Xiang Li’s work at a large scale while keeping shipping, handling, and installation manageable. Exhibitions can be tailored for a single room, a full gallery, a hallway installation, or a multispace experience.
For libraries and public institutions, these exhibitions offer more than visual impact. They create opportunities for cultural education, intergenerational learning, Asian and Asian American programming, women’s history, family engagement, and meaningful community conversation.
We have experience working with libraries, hospitals, museums, gardens, galleries, and community venues, and we understand that every space has different staffing, budget, scheduling, and installation needs. Our goal is to make the process clear, flexible, and approachable from the first conversation through the final installation.
Interested in bringing Xiang Li Art to your library, hospital, gallery, or community space?
Contact our team to discuss your venue, preferred dates, available space, and programming ideas. We would be happy to recommend a collection and develop an exhibition plan that works for your organization.
Learn more about Xiang Li Art and the Chinese Empresses collection:
https://www.xiangliart.com/chinese-empresses/
