Liu Jianhua
Born in Ji’an, 1962 and lives in Shanghai, China
Liu Jianhua is one of China’s best known sculptural and installation artists. Working primarily in porcelain and mixed media, Liu was raised in Ji’an, Jiangxi Province. He spent 14 years living, learning and working in Jingdezhen, a city renown for its porcelain industry. He graduated in Fine Art of Sculpture at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute in 1989, and started his own experimental practices. Liu’s works reflect the economic and social changes in China as well as the problems that emerge. His Regular Fragile series, first shown at the Chinese Pavilion, Venice Biennale in 2003, is composed of porcelain replicas of familiar objects that value appearance and symbolism over function. While his previous focus was on the social issues in China as the result of globalization, since 2008, he explored new grounds with works like Untitled. His “no meaning, no content” approach signals a new direction of contemporary art creation.