Liu Xiaodong


Liu Xiaodong is a contemporary Chinese artist.

Education

Liu was born in 1963 in the small industrial village of Jincheng, a pulp and paper-producing center on the outskirts of Jinzhou in Liaoning province. At age 17 he moved to Beijing to study art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1988, and a Master of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1995, both from CAFA. In 1998–99 he continued his studies overseas at the Academy of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain. He now holds tenure as a professor in the painting department at CAFA.

Art

Liu creates large-scale paintings that depict contemporary life and address global issues such as displacement, environmental crises, and economic shifts. His work focuses on the representation of places of "contradiction and conflict." In 2016, he developed an automated painting machine that transforms city photographs into real-time paintings in his signature style. In these works, he adopted monochromy “to convey the most complicated psychological activity in the simplest way.”

Filmography

1990
The Days: Began participating with the Chinese Independent Film Movement, starting as the lead role in The Days, which was named one of the top 100 most important international films of the past century by the BBC.
1993
Beijing Bastards: Art director for the movie.
2006
Dong : Starred in a documentary of the Three Gorges and Thailand painting project by director Jia Zhangke. This film entered the 2006 Venice Film Festival as a candidate for the Golden Lion Award.
2011
Hometown Boy: This documentary follows Liu Xiaodong as he returns to his hometown thirty years later, and paints his family, friends and his hometown.

Public exhibitions

2021
  • "Liu Xiaodong: Your Friends," UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China
  • "Liu Xiaodong: Borders," Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, USA
2020
2019
2018
  • "Slow Homecoming -- 1983-2018 Retrospective," Kunsthalle Düsseldorf & NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2017
2016
  • "Liu Xiaodong in South Africa," ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Liu Xiaodong: Migrazioni," Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
2015
  • "Painting as Shooting," Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy; Faurschou Foundation, Beijing, China and Copenhagen, Denmark
  • “Diary of an Empty City," Faurschou Foundation, Beijing, China
2014
  • "Liu Xiaodong in Indonesia," ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "Childhood Friends Getting Fat - Moving Image of Liu Xiaodong 1984-2014," Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China
  • "Liu Xiaodong's Two Projects," Shao Zhong Foundation Art Museum, Guangzhou, China
2013
2012
  • "The Process of Painting," Graz Art Museum, Graz, Austria
  • "Liu Xiaodong in Hotan," Xinjiang Arts Center, Urumqi, China
  • "Liu Xiaodong and Yan Pei Ming: Dual Exhibition," Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Milan, Italy
2011
  • "Hometown Boy: Liu Xiaodong," ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
2010
2009
  • "Traces: Liu Xiaodong," Angle Gallery, Beijing, China
  • Inaugural Exhibition, Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing, China
2008
2007
  • "Liu Xiaodong," ESLITE GALLERY, Taipei, Taiwan
  • "The Richness of Life: The Personal Photographs of Contemporary Chinese Artist Liu Xiaodong 1984-2006," Timezone 8, Beijing, China
2006
2005
2004
  • "Three Gorges," China Art Archives & Warehouse, Beijing, China
  • "Regeneration - Contemporary Chinese Art," David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, USA
  • "Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art - 18 Solo Exhibitions," Bunker Museum of Contemporary Art, Kinmen, Taiwan
2003
2002
  • The 1st Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China
  • "Liu Xiaodong at Donghai," Art Center of Donghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
2001
  • "Liu Xiaodong," LOFT Gallery, Paris, France
2000

Literature