A Look At the Artist Behind Saluzi - Li Jiwei
Some yachts turn heads. Motor Yacht Saluzi stops people in their tracks.
Her hull, a sweep of colour, mythology, and movement, is the work of Beijing-born artist Li Jiwei, a figure whose vision has quietly shaped one of the most distinctive silhouettes on the water. In a world where superyachts increasingly merge art, design, and experience, Jiwei’s work on Saluzi feels especially relevant now: a cultural emblem wrapped around a vessel built for modern travellers.
The Artist Who Gave a Yacht Its Soul
Originally a compact cruise ship before her transformation by Austal, Saluzi accommodates up to 32 guests, yet her true scale isn’t measured in metres, but in presence. Jiwei’s mythical horse stretches across the hull in sweeping colour, a living fresco that animates the sea around it. It’s part sculpture, part storytelling; a reminder that yachts today are not only engineered objects, but canvases for identity.
The Artist Behind the Boat
Jiwei’s own story mirrors the palette he works with. Raised in Beijing, he trained first in Traditional Chinese Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts before moving to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, studying under Austrian painter Markus Prachensky. The East–West duality that shaped him is visible everywhere in his work, not as contrast, but as conversation.
A Language of Colour, Chaos, and Intention
Across his oeuvre, Jiwei challenges classical perfectionism, replacing it with motion, scale, and emotional velocity. His pieces are kaleidoscopes of colour and abstraction, often protesting the uniformity that dominates modern design. He draws on the contrasts of his own surroundings, the discipline of his classical training and the expressive freedom he discovered in Europe.
Mozart-Gene
His recent exhibition, Mozart-Gene, pushes that exploration further. Looking at the trajectory of human life alongside technological progress, Jiwei embraces the confusion an artist feels when abandoning traditional image expressions. Bringing abstraction, conceptualisation, and contemporary elements together while paying homage to tradition. By blending acrylic material, acrylic paint, metal, and LEDs, Jiwei encapsulates the evolution we, as people, and he, as an artist, are still experiencing.
Each work is singular, inimitable by design, a statement on identity at a time when almost everything can be copied.
Sharks, Humans, and the Space Between
In Don’t Copy II, presented at the Sharks and Humans exhibition at the National Museum of China, Jiwei assembles more than 70 pieces of transparent material into the suspended outline of a four-metre shark, illuminated with X-rays. The work examines the relationship between humans and nature, inviting viewers to consider the value of life from multiple angles. It builds on his earlier installation Don’t Copy I from the 1990s, a commentary on human cloning, and extends the message into a broader reflection on behaviour, responsibility, and the worlds we may inadvertently create. What emerges is a quiet, contemplative sculpture that holds beauty, fragility, and warning in equal measure.
Fluid Uniformity
Whether working in explosive colour or stark black-and-white, Jiwei’s pieces resist rigidity. Berlin and Beijing. The two cities he has lived and worked in since 1996 shaping that fludity, One is precise, historic, and disciplined; the other experimental, restless, and unapologetically forward-looking. His art sits exactly between them.
And for those stepping onto Saluzi, that duality is the first thing you feel. Her hull isn’t decoration; it’s narrative. It’s the rare moment when a superyacht becomes more than a place to travel, it becomes a place to see.
To Learn More
Explore Jiwei’s world through his website or his Instagram, @lijiwei_art
Chater Motor Yacht Saluzi
Austal-built and unmistakable on the water, Saluzi is a floating retreat designed for serious relaxation and large-scale living. With space for up to 32 guests, two Jacuzzi pools, a spa, a gym, and wide open decks, she’s built for groups who want room to breathe and the freedom to explore.
A crew of 32, including three dedicated chefs, ensures every detail is handled, from relaxed afternoons on deck to full-event service for corporate charters or family gatherings.
Wrapped in Li Jiwei’s iconic artwork, Saluzi offers something rare: a yacht that’s not only memorable to stay on, but impossible to mistake for anything else.
Saluzi
