http://www.alart.org/museum-contemporary-art-korea/
Find Liu Wei Biography and artwork at Saatchi-Gallery
Born in 1965 in Beijing, Liu Wei was one of the most important artists associated with realism cynical (Wanshi xianshizhuyi) movement that emerged after 1989. Earning his degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1989, Liu would go on create paintings that characterized much of the discomfort felt after the Tiananmen Incident.
Liu has also participated at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 and has had solo exhibitions at Jack Tilton Gallery in New York, USA in 1999 and Urs Meile Gallery, Switzerland in 2004. Like its counterpart, Fang Lijun, Liu has been perceived as showing a sense of mischievous humor in his work, illustrating the skepticism generated after the brief but idealistic period starting from the end of the Revolution Cultural and leading up to the year 1989. With the economic and social reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, China began opening its doors to new ideas, including capitalist ideology and Western culture. During this period, the intellectual challenge past ways of Maoist repression, allowing new ideologies and philosophies to emerge and flourish, which in a sense has created an air of idealism and freedom of thinking among the population.
With works such as New Generation (1990) Liu has marked this sense of disdain. Using images of children of himself and his brother as a model for the piece, Liu puts children ahead of a typical image of Mao. As Francesca Dal Lago notes, Liu plays with the notion of Mao Mao and the icon of the historical figure. (1) By placing the President behind the children in his painting, Liu acknowledges the importance that the leader plays in everyday life, however, emphasizes its status today as a mere historical figure. No longer taking center stage, Mao is relegated to the back, demanding recognition of their influence past, but powerless to change the future.
The combination realistic attitudes about social and political situation in China with sarcastic mockery of the authorities try to establish control, Liu created a language that defines much part of the prevailing sentiment of the time. The use of bright colors that recall the propaganda of the Cultural Revolution, while President relegated to the status background, chides Liu authority to believe that he can return to this kind of control and nationalistic zeal, once managed under Mao. Balancing the sarcasm and pragmatism, Liu recognizes the withering effect opposite position of authority and his recent attempts to counter the democratic movements. With the threat of imprisonment and persecution sanctioned yet very tangible since the Tiananmen Incident, Liu gives the children of New Generation is facing older beyond their years. He immediately gave up the struggle face, however, which appear in the irreverent attitude in trying to move to Mao as a center of attention on canvas and in everyday life.
PROFILE
1965
• Beijing
EDUCATION
1989
• BA Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing
Your Selection Exhibition
1. The 4th Seoul International Media Biennale Art, Art Museum of Seoul, Seoul, Korea
2. CHINAJAPANKOREA, Arts of Japan China and Korea, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaodengo
3. 51st Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
4. Mahjong, Bern, Switzerland
5. First Triennial Nanjing, Nanjing, China
6. Shanghai Biennale techniques of the visible, Shanghai, China
7. Exhibition Between Past and Future: New Photography China and Video
8. International Center of Photography, Asia Society, New York, United States
9. Regeneration Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, United States
About the Author
View more information about Liu Wei paintings, biography and Exhibitions at The Saatchi Gallery – London Contemporary Art Gallery. Liu Wei
[Gyeonggi-do] National Museum of Contemporary art, KOREA