Liu Xiaodong employs expressive brushwork and careful composition to capture the mundane moments of everyday life rather than to provide a grand narrative. In this painting, a man rows a boat; in the distance, the Great Wall snakes down a mountain.
Mapping Chinese Art, 1972–2012: Selections for the M+ Sigg Collection. M+, Hong Kong, 2019. sigg.mplus.org.hk
Liu Xiaodong (born 1963, Jinzhou) graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1988 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1995, and now holds a Professorship. He continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, from 1998 to 1999. He creates richly-coloured paintings that capture non-specific moments in the lives of common people and those at the periphery of society. Liu lives and works in Beijing.