Liu BOLIN
Born in Shandong Province, China in 1973.
Sculptor, performer and photographer, nicknamed "the invisible man."
"I decided to blend into the environment.
Some will say that I disappear into the landscape; I would say that the environment takes hold of me."
In 2005, his first series "Hiding in the City" presented a self-portrait of the artist, motionless and covered in paint, blending into the rubble of his studio, located in the artists' district razed by the Chinese government. A silent protest: Liu Bolin makes himself invisible to be noticed.
He decided to use his art as a means of silent protest to draw attention to the lack of protection for Chinese artists by their government.
Since then, he has created works combining photography, body art, optical art and living sculpture.
This chameleon-man poses for hours in front of a wall, a landscape or a monument to blend into the background - eyes closed, his silhouette barely visible - with the help of his painter-assistants, without any digital manipulation. At the end of the camouflage process, he freezes the performance through photography.
His photographs, often playful, also carry a strong symbolic charge.
Hidden in front of a flag, he shows us how the individual gets lost in a collective identity; drowned in the aisle of a supermarket in front of cans of imported drinks, he denounces the consumer society.
Four major themes have been addressed in his work for over a decade: politics and censorship, Chinese tradition and culture, consumer society and freedom of the press.
Biography
Liu Bolin was born in 1973 in Shandong Province, China. He lives and works in Beijing.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- 1995 / Graduate of the Shandong Academy of Fine Arts
- 2001 / Central Academy of Fine Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2019 / LIU BOLIN: Hiding on the 38th Parallel North, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
- 2019 / Liu Bolin “New Change” – Over the Influence, Hong Kong, China
- 2019 / LIU BOLIN | The Invisible Man, Palacio de Gaviria, Madrid, Spain
- 2019 / Liu Bolin. Visible/Invisible, Mudec – Museo delle Culture, Milan, Italy
- 2019 / Continuous Refle(a)ction, Riverside Art Museum, Beijing, China
- 2018 / The Theatre of Appearances, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Swiss
- 2018 / Vanishing Point, BAFA Contemporary, London, UK
- 2018 / Hiding in the city, Le Didam, Bayonne, France
- 2018 / The Invisible Man, Complesso Del Vittoriano – Ala Brasini, Rome, Italy
- 2018 / The Invisible Man, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia
- 2017 / Ghost Stories, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France.
- 2017 / Galerie Party, Act 2, in collaboration with Studio GGSV, Galerie des Enfants, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- 2015 / Liu Bolin, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2014 / Liu Bolin, Boise Art Museum, Boise, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2019 / I eat therefore I am, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
- 2016 / Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Photography – Chinascape: From Rural to Urban, Spazioborgogno, Milan, Italy
- 2016 / We are what we eat, United Nations Visitor Center (main entrance lobby), United Nations Headquarters, New York, USA
- 2016 / Dubai Art Season, Commission by Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, Dubai, UAE
- 2016 / The First Chinese Abstract Art Exhibition, Ningbo Culture Center 117 Art Center, Ningbo, China
- 2016 / Drawing Hands, MD Gallery, Shanghai, China
- 2015 / 360° – A Selection of 500 Contemporary Artworks, MD Gallery, Shanghai, China
- 2015 / Touch the classics Contemporary China 1 0 0 – Jin Hongwei original collection show, China
- 2015 / Guerlain’s group exhibition La petite Robe noire, variation autour d’un mythe, Avenue des Champs Elysées, Paris, France
- 2015 / Tokyo International Photography Festival 2015 – Focus on the Future What Makes Us “Us”, Tokyo, Japan
- 2015 / “Target,” Bienal de Performance 2015, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2015 / East Wing Biennial: INTERACT, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, England