Liu Liyun

Born in 1974; 1997, Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Art (BA); 2000, Graduated from Kent Institute of Art and Design in UK (MFA) ; lives and works in Beijing   

2001   Materialistic Life, Passage Gallery of CAFA, Beijing, China

2006   Disappearing: Liu Liyun Work Exhibition, Galerie Albrecht, Munchen, Germany

2009   Liu Liyun & Miao Xiaochun Art Work Exhibition, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong, China

2009   Inheritance and Innovation of Contemporary Ink, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2009   Metropolis Now: A Selection of Chinese Contemporary Art, Meridian International Center, Washington, U.S.A

2009   Attituds: Female contemporary Art in China, European Contemporary Art Center, Brussels, Belgium

2010   Reshaping History, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2010 Liu Liyun, Liu Liyu Work Exhibition, Art Link Art, Beijing, China

2011   11 Art Project -Mainlang ,Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China; Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan 

2012   Alles unter dem Himmel gehört allen: Contemporary Public Art from China, Kassel, Germany                                

2012   The Art of Contrast-Inheritanne and Development, Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China

2013   Kassel-Zhangzhou Contemporary Chinese Public Art Exhibition, Zhangzhou, China

The meaning of the word “Yoga” is essentially “link”, implying both the bond that binds nature and man, and the connection linking body, mind and spirit. I believe the Christian trinity, the Chinese’ union of man and the heavens (tian ren he yi) and the Indian yogic “union of body, mind and spirit” are in fact one and the same thing. Since 2009, I have focused on human perception, experience and the connection linking the self and nature, with any resultant artworks being but a single component of these inquiries. Humankind is but a single modicum within the spaces of the universe, smaller than a particle of dust, but larger in being a part of the generative processes of the natural world (zao-hua); a holistic entity, inseparable from the natural world. However, in all their arrogance, people have already transformed the natural world into something ferocious, with contemporary China representing the archetype for just such a critical state. What can art do here? I want to reawaken the little respect for nature that still lingers in our hearts and thoughts about the future and believe artworks should spring forth from the heart, as a neat bond between the origin and the manifold entities that compose the natural world, regardless of what methods are used to express this. I also feel that artworks oughtn’t to emerge from world-weary musings, but rather spontaneously, as an expression of intelligence and feeling.