1949年生于中国吉林，1974-1978年间作为工农兵学员于北京中央美术学院中国画系学习。他曾任三本重要艺术杂志的编辑，包括《美术》（1978-1983年），《中国美术报》（1985-1989年）及《新潮》（2001年），也曾参与其他期刊如《美术思潮》及《艺术潮流》的编辑工作。
他对中国艺术的研究及写作自1970年代延续至今，其文章如「”五四美术革命”批判」、「重要的不是艺术」、「”后现代”、 “民族化”和”稻草”」及「当前中国艺术的”无聊感”──析玩世现实主义潮流」等，都成为了研究中国当代艺术不可或缺的参考文献。
作为独立策展人，栗先生参与策划过《后八九，中国新艺术》（1993-1997年，香港、澳洲及北美多个场地）、《从国家意识形态出走》（1995年，德国汉堡） 、《跨世纪彩虹》（1999年，中国天津）、《对伤害的迷恋》（2000年，中国北京）及《念珠与笔触》（2003年，中国北京）等重要展览。
近年，栗先生居住在北京宋庄，自2006年起创办及主持「栗宪庭电影基金」，一个致力于中国独立纪录片放映、教育及存档的项目。
Born in Jilin, China in 1949, he studied in the Department of Chinese Painting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, as a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student from 1974 to 1978. He was Editor for three seminal art publications: Meishu (1978–1983), Fine Arts in China (1985–1989), and Next Wave (2001). He was also involved in the editorial works of other art journals, such as The Trend of Art Thought and Art Currents.
Li has been a prominent writer and researcher about contemporary Chinese art since the 1970s. His essays, which include 'A Critique of the Artistic Revolution of May Fourth Movement,' 'The Significance Does Not Lie in Art,' 'Postmodernity, Nationalisation, and Straw,' and 'Apathetic Feelings in Contemporary Chinese Art Trends: An Analysis of the Cynical Realist Current,' have become indispensable texts for research on contemporary Chinese art.
As an independent curator, Li has participated in numerous influential exhibitions, including 'China's New Art, Post–1989' (1993–1997, toured to various locations in Hong Kong, Australia, and North America); 'Walk Away from National Ideology' (1995, Hamburg, Germany); 'Oh La La Kitsch' (1999, Tianjin, China); 'Infatuated with Injury' (2000, Beijing, China); and 'Prayer Beads and Brush Strokes' (2003, Beijing, China).
Li Xianting settled in Beijing’s Songzhuang and founded Li Xianting Film Fund in 2006, which is a project dedicated to the screening, education, and preservation of independent documentary films in China.
教育 Education：
1974-1978 就读于北京中央美术学院中国画系
群展 Group Exhibition：
2024 芝兰——都市园林一隅，The Pool by X Museum，上海，中国
