Has the current sheltering during the Coronavirus pandemic energised you? Have you been trying to balance the physical restrictions of what can and can’t be done?

The lockdown during the pandemic allowed me to devote myself to do a few basic things, such as cooking two meals every day for my family, or painting a tiny watercolor. It helps me to balance my inner self. 

Has your time in New York City provided reflection and/or contemplation about your work? 

It has indeed. I’ve been wondering if I should take part in less shows, and do works not for the purpose of exhibiting or publishing, just to keep myself at balance. Painting is like drug, it secretes dopamine and it’s highly addictive. Since I can’t quit, I’ll just paint less, only for my own peace of mind.

With all of the drawings and works on paper you have been making recently, what will be the larger narrative?

These days I have painted many watercolors that are to be shown in an online exhibition at Lisson Gallery. My work always aims to question if people can still be their original self in the constant metamorphosis of the world.

Is the city still a great backdrop for image making and creative ideas?

Three months ago, the Whitney Museum in New York held an exhibition on American and Mexican artists; the Metropolitan Museum of Art had a large Gerhard Richter show. From a curatorial perspective, I think New York is still a formidable and dynamic place.

What have you be watching or reading during the past few weeks?

I read How To See by David Salle, and Wim Wenders’ My Time with Antonioni, and watched many movies, such as Antonioni, Hou Hsiao-Hsie, Edward Yan, Bong Joon Ho, and Kiarostami.

about liu xiaodong

Liu Xiaodong was born in 1962, in Jincheng, China, an industrial town in the northern part of the country, at a time when living in small towns in China was still extremely difficult. Considering art as a possible way to a better future, his parents sent him to live with his uncle, who had previously trained as a painter, where Liu Xiaodong learned to use watercolors to copy the British masters and traditional Russian school of painting. In 1980, Liu Xiaodong was admitted to the High School affiliated with the Central Institute and he later went on to attend the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where he eventually graduated in 1988, during his time at the Academy, he studied oil painting, which was then deeply influenced by socialist realism. From 1993 and 1994, Liu Xiaodong spent several months painting and traveling in the United States, where he married artist, Yu Hong. Upon returning to China he became a professor at the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Art where he had graduated a few years earlier.

Liu Xiaodong’s painting focuses on the everyday lives of people - he depicts common living conditions in an age of grand social and economic transformations. In recent years, he has travelled extensively to paint from life both in China and abroad, and has had solo exhibition all over the world, most recently in Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, and Denmark. In recent years, he has turned to global issues, focusing on people from various cultures and countries against the backdrop of globalization today. Aside from China, Liu has painted from life in Italy, Cuba, Japan, Korea, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Britain, and Greenland. In every project, he has come face to face with the living environments of his subjects, expressing his humanistic awareness through paintings as well as diaries and documentaries. Liu has participated in multiple film projects, including Jia Zhangke’s film, “Still Life,” the winner of the 2006 Golden Lion Award for best film, in Venice, Italy. Lately, Liu has collaborated with a technology team to remotely paint with robots. His multi-disciplinary explorations not only call attention to the lives of ordinary people but also challenge the boundaries of traditional oil painting, making him a respected artist around the world.