Liu Ye

Liu Ye was born in 1964 in Beijing, currently lives and works in Beijing. After studying at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown Beijing between 1984 and 1989, Liu Ye went to Berlin and received a degree of MFA Bildende Kunst from Universität der Künste, Berlin (University of Fine Arts in Berlin), in 1994. He later attended two artist-in-residence programs at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam and the Delfina Studios in London.

Liu Ye’s diverse imagery has ranged from a compendium of references to Western artists (such as Mondriaan), to invented tableaus involving children, and beyond these, to visual situations featuring cartoon and fairly-tale characters, celebrities and still-life subjects since 1990’s. His paintings combine these disparate elements, the formation of the image underpinned by observation, memory, imagination and art history as dynamic forces. While it is tempting to read his work as self-revelatory, the nature of his imagery nevertheless resists any such straightforward interpretation. Throughout his artistic development, the questions of what to paint and how to paint have been twin imperatives, and at various moments these respective issues have assumed different degrees of emphasis.

Liu Ye’s compositions are of representation and abstraction points to a dance of formative energies, at the same time, it reflects the course that he has gradually charted for himself between two traditions. Unlike most acclaimed Chinese contemporary art in his generation, Liu Ye’s works have little political implications. Instead, he prefers to use a universal language to depict his inner world.

Liu Ye’s recent participated exhibitions include: Hello World, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 2018, Viva Arte Viva, 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017. In 2016, the solo exhibition entitled Mondriaan and Liu Ye was held at the Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort - the hometown of Mondriaan.

Liu Ye

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