Liu Wei (b.1972)

In 2006, Liu Wei began creating his intensely urban-centric Purple Air series of works. The images he distills out of complexity, and their jumbled strips of colour, create a sense of alienation along with their pleasing rhythms. "It's reality," he said, "because reality is everything you see. Actually you can't create anything, because everything already exists; it's all about how you look at it, from what angle. Maybe you see it from a good angle, or maybe a bad angle, but then it's all about the method you use to give it an accurate presentation. When you paint it, it can be beautiful, but when you're living in the midst of it, maybe it's different. But it has that great feeling of life and vitality, so I call it 'Purple Air.' In ancient China they said that when you see air tinged with purple, it means distance and haziness, but in fact it means life and energy. This reality contains a Lot of problems, but it has a living energy."Liu Wei interview, Breaking Forecast: 8 Key Figures of China's New Generation Artists, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2009)
Liu Wei's artistic outlook nicely encapsulates the question of what "reality" is, and our relationship to it. As a product of the computer age, Liu Wei's Purple Air works involve digital image production and intense contrasts of colours, aspects which inject a strong sense of movement and life into the cityscapes of the series, helping spark new associations and insights by viewers into rapidly developing the urban environment of today's China.