Liu Bolin, born 1973 in Shangdong province comes up to Beijing in 1999.

Liu Bolin receives a place to study sculpture at the CAFA in 1999 and graduates in 2005. He is the student and then the assistant of the sculptor Sui Jianguo from whom he will later retain the clean shapes, striking colours such as red or white, and doubtless also certain character traits like a discrete sense of humour and humility. Like many artists in China, he experiments with an abundance of mediums and techniques that fall between his hands. Sculpture becomes a pretext for performance, performance is in itself painting and then painting becomes photography.

The first work that he presents to the public is a series of photographs entitled “Hiding in the City”, in which a man, often the artist himself, camouflages his face and body to disappear into a seemingly innocent urban landscape. […] Liu places himself in apparently common place backgrounds– streets, bus stops – but they reveal an urban environment constantly affecting us subliminally – political propaganda or advertisements that rule our daily lives. […] Liu Bolin creates a world that appears to be fun and full of bright colors but is in reality uncaring, a reflection of the post Cultural Revolution era to which he belongs. Liu, who considers himself a more realistic than idealistic artist, has managed to express visually a feeling of unease, according to which, despite appearances, everything is not quite right.

You can find more information on the site of Galérie Paris-Beijing.

Liu Bolin in the Central Branch: