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Liu Wei

  • About
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
    • Group Exhibition
    • How Art Museum
  • Artworks
    • Installation
  • Articles
  • Liu Wei
  • Birthdate: 1972
    Birthplace: China | Beijing
    Gender: Male
    Lives and Works in: China | Beijing
    About:
    Liu Wei was born in 1972 in Beijing, where he lives and works. His solo exhibitions include Long Museum, Shanghai (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (2019); Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2015); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2014); Today Art Museum, Beijing (2011); and Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2011).

    Group exhibitions include Busan Museum of Art, South Korea (2020); Smart Museum of Art and Wrightwood 659, Chicago (2020); Faurschou Foundation, Beijing (2018); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2017); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016); ArtisTree, Hong Kong (2016); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Long Museum, Shanghai (2014); 11th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates (2013); Lucerne Museum of Art, Lucerne (2011); Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris (2010); Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2009); Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg, (2008); Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2007); MoMA, New York (2004).

    Liu has participated in numerous biennials, including the 58th and 51st Venice Biennale (2019, 2005); 11th, 8th and 5th Shanghai Biennale (2016, 2010, 2004); 3rd Aichi Triennial (2016); 13th and 9th Biennale de Lyon (2015, 2007); Sharjah Biennale 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2013); 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Guangzhou Triennial (2012, 2008, 2005, 2002); and 6th Busan Biennale (2008).
    Education:
    1996    China Academy of Art, Hangzhou
  • Biography

  • Solo exhibitions

    2021 

    Nuditá, White Cube Bermondsey, London

    2020 

    Over, Long Museum, Shanghai

    2019 

    Liu Wei: Invisible Cities, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio; Cleveland 

    Museum of Art, Ohio 

    2018 

    Shadows, Long March Space, Beijing

    2016 

    Lehmann Maupin, New York

    Panorama, Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul

    2015 

    Silver, White Cube, Hong Kong

    Colors, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    2014 

    Long March Space, Art Basel, Switzerland 

    Sensory Spaces 4, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

    Density, White Cube, London

    2013 

    Void, Arrow Factory, Beijing, China

    Lehmann Maupin, New York

    2012 

    White Cube, London

    Long March Space, Beijing

    Foreign, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris2011 

    Myriad Beings, Today Art Museum, Beijing

    Trilogy, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai

    2010 

    Diversion Era, CAN Foundation, Seoul

    2009 

    The Forgotten Experience, Galerie Hussenot, Paris

    Yes, That's All, Beors-Li Gallery, Beijing

    2007 

    The Outcast, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing

    Love It, Bite It, China Art Archives and Warehouse in association with Boers-Li 

    Gallery, Beijing

    2006 

    Property of Liu Wei, Beijing Commune

    Purple Air, Grace Li Gallery, Zurich 

    Love It, Bite It, BizArt, Shanghai

    2005 

    Courtyard Gallery, Beijing

    Selected group exhibitions

    2022 

    Urban Impressions: Experiencing the Global Contemporary Metropolis, Moody 

    Center for the Arts, Austin, Texas

    2020 

    Trilogy of Contemporary Art in China – THE SCAR, The Busan Museum of Art, 

    South Korea

    The Allure of Material: Material Art from China, Smart Museum of Art and 

    Wrightwood 659, Chicago

    Racket of Cobwebs: Chinese Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, Tang 

    Contemporary, Hong Kong 

    From the Mundane World—Launch Exhibition of He Art Museum, He Art Museum, 

    Guangdong, China

    Duration: Chinese Art in Transformation, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, 

    China

    2019 

    May You Live in Interesting Times, 58th Venice Biennale

    Entropy, Faurschou Foundation, Venice

    The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China, Minsheng Art Museum, 

    Beijing

    Homo Faber: Craft in Contemporary Sculpture, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, 

    South Korea

    The Curation Workshop—Exhibition Curation and Design, OCT Art & Design 

    Gallery, Shenzhen, ChinaExtreme Mix: First Guangzhou Airport Biennale, Guangzhou Airport Resort, 

    Guangzhou, China

    2018 

    Entropy, Faurschou Foundation, Beijing

    Reconstructing Utopia - Architecture and Art Exhibition, OCT Art & Design Gallery, 

    Shenzhen, China

    Remembering Tomorrow: Artworks and Archives, White Cube, Hong Kong 

    Memory Palace, White Cube, London

    From/To: the Frontier of Chinese Art Education, San Francisco Art Institute, 

    California

    Gridology, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong

    Turning Point – 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Long Museum West Bund, 

    Shanghai

    2017 

    Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 

    New York; Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain, 2018

    Landmark - Mapping Contemporary Chinese Art, Guardian Art Center, Beijing

    L'emozione dei colori nell'arte, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy

    Chinese Summer, Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo

    Woven, Rental, East Hampton, New York

    No Place Like Home, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

    Before the Beginning and After the End II, Long March Space, Beijing

    Screens: Virtual Material, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, 

    Massachusetts

    Solid/Divide, Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town

    Resurrection II: The Fact of Phantom, SURPLUSSPACE, Wuhan, China

    Social Emotion, CC Foundation & Art Centre, Shanghai

    Marching in Circles, Long March Space, Beijing

    2016 

    Why Not Ask Again? Arguments, Counter-arguments and Stories, 11th Shanghai 

    Biennale, Power Station of Art 

    Forming in the pupil of an eye, Kochi-Murizis Biennale, Kerala, India

    Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan, Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan

    For an Image, Faster Than Light, Yinchuan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art 

    Yinchuan, China

    Bentu, Chinese Artists in a Time of Turbulence and Transformation, Fondation 

    Louis Vuitton, Paris

    Mountain Sites: Views of Laoshan, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China

    What About the Art? Contemporary Art from China, Qatar Museums Gallery Al 

    Riwaq, Doha, Qatar

    Radical Materiality, Lehmann Maupin, Hong Kong

    Chinese Whispers: Recent Art of the M+ Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern 

    Weaving & We, 2nd Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Museum of Art, 

    Hangzhou, China

    Turning Point: Contemporary Art in China Since 2000, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum

    Digging a Hole in China, OCAT Shenzhen, China

    2015 

    La Vie Moderne, 13th Lyon Biennial, France

    Civil Power, Neijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing

    Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915 – 2015, Whitechapel 

    Gallery, London

    System of Objects, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai

    Fervent China, Anciens Abattoirs, Mons, Belgium

    Future Seasons Past, Lehmann Maupin, New York

    28 Chinese, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; San Antonio Museum of Art, San 

    Antonio, Texas

    2014 

    Bringing the World into the World, Queens Museum, New York

    Through all Ages, Long Museum, Shanghai

    8 of Paths, Uferhallen, Berlin

    A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture, Phillips, London

    Un-erasable Memories, A Historic Look at the Videobrasil Collection, SESC, São 

    Paulo

    Aftermath: Post-Sense Sensibility – Fifteen Years On, Duddell's, Hong Kong

    Re-View, Long Museum, West Bund, Shanghai

    The Power of the Public Realm, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum

    2013 

    Every Day Matters, Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen

    Shamans & Dissent, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong

    28 Chinese, Rubell Family Collection, Miami

    Re:emerge: Towards a New Cultural Cartography, 11th Sharjah Biennial, United 

    Arab Emirates

    2012 

    La Chambre Claire, Taikang Space, Beijing

    Edit: Image Fetish and Phobia, ShanghART H – SPACE, Shanghai

    The 4th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

    Faces, Mingsheng Art Museum, Shanghai

    Martell Artists of the Year, Today Art Museum, Beijing; Guangdong Art Museum, 

    Guangzhou, China; Shanghai Art Museum

    CIGE, China World Trade Centre, Beijing

    Adumbration Exhibition, Re-C Art Space, Chengdu, China

    Water Stains on the Wall – The Carrier of Formation, Zhejiang Art Museum, China

    2011 

    Liu Wei & Ai Weiwei: Works from the Collection, Faurschou Foundation, Beijing

    ACT>TION, Long March Space, Beijing

    Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art – Moving Image in China 1988-2011, 

    Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai

    The Shape of Time – The Multi-Narrative History in Contemporary Chinese Art, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    The Hague Under Heaven: Contemporary Sculpture from China, Den Haag 

    Sculpture, Netherlands

    Shanshui, Poetry without Sound? Landscape in Chinese Contemporary Art, 

    Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland 

    About Painting, Art Berlin Contemporary 

    Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai

    Credit Suisse Today 

    Art Award 2011 Finalists Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing

    2010 

    Dreamlands, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

    State of Things – Exhibition of the Contemporary Art Exchange between China and 

    Belgium, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

    10,000 Lives, 8th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea

    Roundtrip: Beijing – New York Now, Selections from the Domus Collection, Ullens 

    Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    Long March Project – Ho Chi Minh Trail, Long March Space, Beijing

    Rehearsal, Shanghai Biennale

    2009 

    Breaking Forecast – 8 Key Figures of China's New Generation Artists, Ullens 

    Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    State of Things – Exhibition of Contemporary Art Exchange between China and 

    Belgium, BOZAR Centre for the Arts, Brussels

    The New Attitude of Image, Tang Contemporary, Beijing

    Bourgeoisified Proletariat, ShanghART Songijang Creative Studio, Shanghai

    The Big World: Recent Art From China, Chicago Cultural Center

    2008 

    Expenditure, Busan Biennale, South Korea

    The Borders of Utopia, Today Art Museum, Beijing

    Farewell to Postcolonialism, 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, China

    Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; 18 

    on the Bund, Shanghai

    Building Code Violations II, Long March Space, Beijing

    Upcoming: New World Order, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands

    Community of Tastes, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    Revolution Continues, Saatchi Gallery, London

    Sprout from White Nights, Bonnierskonsthall, Stockholm

    Dior and Chinese Artists, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

    Mahjong: Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Berkeley Art Museum, California

    CYLWXZ, Esther Schipper Gallery, Berlin

    China Power Station: Part III, MUDAM, Luxembourg 

    2007 

    The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named, 9th Lyon Biennial, France

    NONO, Long March Space, BeijingChina Now, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands

    China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo

    Year of the Golden Pig: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Lewis 

    Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland 

    2006 

    AllLookSame?/Tuttuguale?, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

    Yellow Box, Qingpu Gallery, Shanghai

    The Twelve: Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, 

    Shanghai

    Contemporary Art in China, PKM Gallery, Seoul

    Fiction@Love, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai

    Idylls and Visions: The Second Space for Contemporary Ink Work, Guangdong 

    Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China

    4th Seoul International Media Art Biennale

    It's All Right!, BizArt, Shanghai

    China Now, Essl Museum, Vienna 

    City Limits: Shanghai – Los Angeles, University Art Museum, Long Beach, 

    California

    2005 

    51st Venice Biennale

    Mahjong, Kunstmuseum Bern

    1st Nanjing Triennial, China

    2nd Guangzhou Triennial, China

    Something's Happening, BizArt, Shanghai

    Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the USA, Arizona State 

    University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona

    Outsider, Long March Space, Beijing

    2004 

    Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai Biennial

    Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, International 

    Center of Photography and Asia Society, New York 

    Chinese Eyes: Contemporary Photography from China, Goedhuis Contemporary, 

    New York

    Regeneration, Charles Cowles Gallery, New York; David Winton Bell Gallery, 

    Providence, Rhode Island

    2003 

    Open Sky, Duolun Museum of Art, Shanghai

    The Fifth System: Public Art in the Age of Post-Planning, Fifth Sculpture Exhibition 

    in Shenzhen, Hexiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

    Hello, Comrade Worker, Today Art Museum, Beijing

    Double Time, China Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China

    Second Hand Reality, Today Art Museum, Beijing

    Refine 798, 798, Beijing

    Nasty, BizArt, Shanghai2002 

    1st Guangzhou Triennial, China

    Mirage, Godot Art Museum/Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou, China

    Every Attitude: An Exhibition of Chinese Photo-Based Arts, Pingyao, Shanxi, China

    Too Much Flavor, 3H Art Center, Shanghai

    2001 

    Post-Sense Sensibility: Spree, Beijing Film Academy

    Non-Linear Narrative, Gallery of National Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China 

    Mantic Ecstasy, Impression Gallery, Hangzhou, China; BizArt Center, Shanghai; 

    Loft, New Media Art Basel, Beijing

    Hong Kong International Video Festival, Museum of Circumstance, Hong Kong

    2000 

    Home? Contemporary Art Project, Yuexing Furniture Warehouse, Shanghai

    Portraits, Figures, Couples and Groups, BizArt, Shanghai

    1999 

    Art for Sale, Shanghai Plaza

    Beijing in London, Institute of Contemporary Art, London

    Post-Sensibility: Alien Bodies and Delusion, Shaoyaoju, Beijing

    Hong Kong International Video Festival, Museum of Circumstance, Hong Kong

    Selected awards

    2016 

    Award of Art China Artist of the Year 

    2015 

    Award of Art China Nominated

    2012 

    Martell Artists of the Year 

    2011 

    Credit Suisse Today Art Award

    2008 

    Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Best Artist

    2006 

    Chinese Contemporary Art Award Nominated

    Selected Public Collections

    Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo

    Baku Museum of Modern Art, Azerbaijan

    Burger Collection, Hong Kong

    Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin

    Cleveland Museum of Art, OhioDSL Collection, Paris

    Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen

    Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin

    Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, China

    Guy and Myriam Ullens Collection, Belgium

    Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

    Haudenschild Collection, San Francisco

    Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul

    M+, Hong Kong

    National Gallery Victoria, Melbourne

    Qiao Space, Shanghai, China

    Rubell Family Collection, Miami

    Sishang Art Museum, Beijing

    Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

    White Rabbit Collection, Sydney


  • Exhibitions
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      Feb 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
      Curator: Xu Tianyi
      Artists: Markus Lüpertz, aaajiao, LLND, Oreet Ashery, Darren Almond, Hu Yun, Carsten Nicolai, Li Binyuan, Lee Yongbaek, Lin Ke, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Lu Lei, Tong Wenmin, Tobias Rehberger, Yang Jiecang, Ye Linghan, Yu Ji, Zhang Peili, Zhou Xiaohu, Li Liao, Lee Bul
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
  • Artworks
  • Articles

    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze

      2023-06-13 By Xu Tianyi

      My age, my beast, who will ever

      Look into your eyes.

      And with his own blood glue together

      The backbones of two centuries?

      Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

      The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

      It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

      You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

      However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    [Synopsis] You as Me, Hold the Gaze

    By Xu Tianyi 2023-06-13

    My age, my beast, who will ever

    Look into your eyes.

    And with his own blood glue together

    The backbones of two centuries?

    Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

    The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

    It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

    You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

    However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    Related Artists aaajiao , LLND , Oreet Ashery , Darren Almond , Hu Yun , Lee Bul , Li Liao , Carsten Nicolai , Lee Yongbaek , Li Binyuan , Lin Ke , Lin Tianmiao , Liu Wei , Shi Yong , Markus Lüpertz , Lu Lei , Tong Wenmin , Tobias Rehberger , Yang Jiecang , Zhang Peili , Yu Ji , Ye Linghan , Zhou Wendou , Zhou Xiaohu ,









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