From January 15 to April 10, 2022, the UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing presents artist Liu Xiaodong's solo exhibition "Liu Xiaodong: Your Friend".
The exhibition was first exhibited at UCCA Edge shanghai in 2021, and some of the new works constitute the main body of the Beijing tour, focusing on Liu Xiaodong's "Your Friends" series created by Liu Xiaodong's return to China in the early stage of the epidemic in 2020, as well as related creative manuscripts, diaries and newly filmed documentaries, focusing on the artist's creative practice in recent years. This touring exhibition is also the second solo exhibition held by Liu Xiaodong at UCCA in Beijing after the 2010 solo exhibition "Golden City Kid". "Liu Xiaodong: Your Friend" is co-curated by UCCA Curator Feiyu Tian and UCCA Curator Dialect.
"Liu Xiaodong: Your Friend" exhibition scene, UCCA Edge, 2021. Imagery was taken by ActionMedia.
"Liu Xiaodong: The Golden City Kid" exhibition scene, UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 2010.
As a pioneer of Chinese neorealist painting, Liu Xiaodong emerged in the 1990s, and with his sensitivity and insight into the development pains of the times, he vividly and clearly portrayed the changes of the times in China entering a new era. Since the beginning of 2000, from the Three Gorges Dam to the Texas-Mexico border under Trump, Liu Xiaodong has expanded his artistic practice, creating in areas full of narrative and even important geopolitical significance, recording various social realities with a paintbrush.
Liu Xiaodong, Yang Hua, 2020, oil on canvas, 150 × 140 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
In 2020, Liu Xiaodong was trapped in New York due to the outbreak of the epidemic, and after returning to China after a month-long separation from his friends' family, he immediately set out to create a new "Your Friends" series, which was completed in the early summer of 2021. In this series of works, Liu Xiaodong has a deeper understanding of the nature of the interconnection of life, turning his creative eyes to the relatives who are most closely related in his life, as well as the close friends who have intersected with his artistic creation, and begin to think about what these most special intimate relationships mean to him, the growth experienced in decades of interaction, and the aging and death that will eventually come, how long can such a cherished friendship last.
Liu Xiaodong, "Ning Dai's Classmate Laughed Personally", 2021, oil on canvas, 250 × 300 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
The "Your Friends" series originated from a self-portrait created by Liu Xiaodong during the Lunar New Year in January 2020. The self-portrait is set against the backdrop of the grove in his hometown of Heitu Village, Liaoning Province, where his father is buried. This small village with fifty families is not far from Jincheng, a paper-making town where Liu Xiaodong grew up, and the farm yard he and his brother built makes it full of memories and joy. This rugged northeastern farmhouse has become a foothold for family reunions, and the whole family sits around kangtou and cooks on the fire. In the opening work of this series, Liu Xiaodong is naked, crouching like a tiger on the snow in the cold winter, primitively close to the land where he raised himself, naked and facing his body. This submissive gesture of nature and the environment, and the acceptance of the inevitable passing, is at the heart of this group of works.
Liu Xiaodong, Self-Portrait of Black Earth Pit, 2020, oil on canvas, 244× 183 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
Liu Xiaodong, "Running on the Ancestral Grave", 2021, watercolor on paper, 34 × 25.5 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
The title of the exhibition stemmed from the fact that when painting a portrait of film director Zhang Yuan, Liu Xiaodong found his mantra "Your Friend" quite witty and interesting, so he decided to name the exhibition after it. This exhibition presents the most intimate people portrayed by Liu Xiaodong with his trademark keen perception and creative approach. Among them are his close friends who have known each other in Beijing for more than 30 years: the well-known writer Ah Cheng and Wang Xiaoshuai and Zhang Yuan, representatives of China's "sixth generation" filmmakers, whose core narrative has always focused on their families: mothers, brothers, daughters, and yu Hong, who is also an artist.
Liu Xiaodong, Yu Hong, 2021, oil on canvas, 260 × 220 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
Liu Xiaodong, Acheng, 2020, oil on canvas, 270 × 230 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
In this group of works, what we see is not a glimpse of the artist's on-the-spot observation in the face of the depicted object, but through the gaze of the artist and his intimate individual, through the love of mother and child, brotherhood, romance of love, or the expression of art and style, the subtle and layered appeal of the family affection through the years, and invites us to look at the present together and think about the essence of building the interconnected relationship between human beings.
Liu Xiaodong, "The Little Handsome and the Big Yuanzi Smoking", 2020, Watercolor on Paper, 31 × 31 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
Liu Xiaodong, "Old Mother (Black Ink)", 2021, Ink on Paper, 31 × 31 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
Liu Xiaodong, "Brother Drinking Tea", 2021, watercolor on paper, 34 × 25.5 cm. Images courtesy of the artist's studio.
In addition, the exhibition will also feature a series of Liu Xiaodong's small works on paper, diary manuscripts, and a film of the same name, filmed by director Yang Bo, documenting the creation process and background of the above works. Following the solo exhibition "Golden City Kid" held by Beijing UCCA in 2010, this exhibition continues Liu Xiaodong's long-term close attention to reality and the instantaneous freeze of the living conditions of all kinds of ordinary people under the torrent of the development of the times. Liu Xiaodong's capture of human emotions that connect with each other and transcend culture, politics and race in his creation is not only his inheritance and exploration of neorealist painting, but also an artist's unremitting exploration of the true meaning that history gives to the present.
Trailer for the documentary "Your Friend".
About the artist
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Liu Xiaodong was born in 1963 in Jincheng Town, Liaoning Province, and now lives and works in Beijing. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1988 and has been teaching at the school ever since. Liu Xiaodong has held solo exhibitions at numerous institutions, including: UCCA Edge (Shanghai, 2021), Museum of Contemporary Art in Dallas (USA, 2020), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark, 2019), NRW Forum and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (Germany, 2018), Sastroch Palace (Florence, 2016), Today Art Museum (Beijing, 2013), Graz Art Museum (Austria, 2012), UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2010), etc. His works have been exhibited in important art institutions at home and abroad, including: Somert Palace (London, 2020), The Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2017), The Fondation Louis Vuitton (France, 2016), Long Museum (Shanghai, 2014), Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai, 2012), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, 2010), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (USA, 2008), Pompidou Center (France, 2003), etc. In addition, Liu Xiaodong has participated in international biennials such as the 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014), the 15th Sydney Biennale (2006), the 47th and 55th Venice Biennales (1997, 2003), the 10th Havana Biennale (2009) and the 3rd Shanghai Biennale (2000).
Exhibition opening hours
2022.1.15 – 2022.4.10
(Closed from 2022.1.29 – 2022.2.4)
Tuesday to Sunday
10:00-19:00 (last admission at 18:30)
798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
The documentary "Your Friend" is shown at the time
10:00-11:30、11:45-13:15、
13:30-15:00、15:15-16:45、
17:00-18:30
Ticketing information
2022.1.15 – 2022.2.20
Buy "Maurizio Cattelan: The Last Judgment"
Tickets to watch the exhibition together
2022.2.21 – 2022.3.24
"Liu Xiaodong: Your Friend" sold separately
Ticketing information will be released in the near future
Stay tuned
Exhibition catalogue
In conjunction with the "Liu Xiaodong: Your Friend" touring exhibition, UCCA will launch a bilingual catalogue of the same name in Chinese and English, which includes the oil paintings, watercolors and photo paper paintings previously exhibited in Beijing and the previous UCCA Edge, the carefully excerpted diary of Liu Xiaodong's latest paintings, and the still frame of the documentary of the same name shot by director Yang Bo, trying to present the fluidity and documentary of time and space in Liu Xiaodong's creation in different dimensions. This catalogue not only shows Liu Xiaodong's affectionate observations of his closest friends and family in his life and artistic career, as well as his sketches of painting and walking around the world in the past decade, but also includes UCCA Curator Tian Feiyu's comments and interpretations of Liu Xiaodong's recent creations; anthropologist Xiang Biao's in-depth excavation of body imagery in Liu Xiaodong's works; and the dialogue between curator Fang Yu and Liu Xiaodong around the main line of exhibition planning. The exhibition catalogue was designed by He Pinping and Mai Shi and published by Zhejiang Photography Publishing House.
Sponsorship & Support
This exhibition is supported by Dulux's exclusive environmental wall solution, and exclusive audio equipment support is provided by Zhenli. We would also like to thank the Board of Trustees of the Ullens Foundation, the UCCA International Committee, the UCCA Youth Patron, the Chief Strategic Partner Anaya, the Chief Art Reading Partner DIOR Dior, the Joint Strategic Partners Bloomberg, The Wojger Group and Aoyi Biotech, as well as the special strategic partners Active House, Barco, BenQ, Clivet Central Air Conditioning, Doroth, and Zhenli for their long-term valuable support.
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