Liu Wei is a multimedia artist born in Beijing, China in 1972. Ranging in scope from video, installation, drawing, sculpture, painting, to photography, Liu’s satirical work explores contemporary socio-political issues that respond to his generation’s experience around rapid social transformation. Liu studied printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating in 1989, Liu Wei became widely recognized as one of the frontrunners of the Cynical Realism movement in China—the group’s underpinnings a response to the rapidly increasing industrialization in the country during the 1990s.
Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2020); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (2019); Long March Space, Beijing, China (2018); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China (2015); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2014); and Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2011). Liu Wei has participated in several international biennials and notable group exhibitions including Urban Impressions: Experiencing the Global Contemporary Metropolis, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas (2022); Aesthetics: Collection of Qiao Zhibing, Tank Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2021); The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL (2020); Bodyscapes, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (2020); Trilogy of Contemporary Art in China: THE SCAR, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, South Korea (2020); Homo Faber: Craft in Contemporary Sculpture, Asia Culture Center, Gwangiu, South Korea (2019); The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2019); the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2019); Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2018); What About Art? Contemporary Art from China, Qatar Museum, Doha, Qatar (2016); Bentu, Chinese artists at a time of turbulence and transformation, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2016); La vie Moderne, La Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2015); 28 Chinese, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California (2015), San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (2015), and Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2013); Re:emerge: Towards a New Cultural Cartography, Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013); 4th Guangzhou Triennial, China (2012); Rehearsal, Shanghai Biennale (2010); Expenditure, Busan Biennale, South Korea (2008); and the 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2005).
Liu’s work is included in notable collections such as the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway; Baku Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; DSL Collection, Paris, France; Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark; Guy and Myriam Ullens Collection, Belgium; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; Haudenschild Collection, San Francisco, California; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia; and White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia.