Liu Wei

(b. 1972, Beijing)

Born in Beijing, China in 1972, Liu Wei studied oil painting at China Academy of Art. After graduating, Liu Wei quickly became known as a prominent figure in China’s cynical realism movement. Influenced by the events of 1989, his early paintings mirror the movement’s disenchantment with both political and artistic utopias.

Demonstrating a wide array of influences from Chinese calligraphy to Expressionism, Liu Wei’s work has become less political over time. In many of his sculptural and installation works, he uses found materials that are re-contextualized to draw new meanings out of the materials from which they are made. He frequently uses geometric and architectural forms in his work as a reference to his urban surroundings.