LIU WEI (CHINA, B. 1965)

Liu Wei was one of the painters who emerged from the malaise of the 1990s as one of China's most insightful and intuitive social observers. His work gravitates towards the expression of the underlying tensions and psychological experiences of his generation. The artist quickly moved away from a strictly realist tradition and developed a more expressionistic style in the late 1990s. For Liu, every brushstroke contributes to a state of spiritual and material decomposition.

The bizarre portrayal of the swollen flesh is Liu's intentional depiction of the aestheticism of decay, and in order to render the sense of decomposing beauty, the distinction between the skin and flesh must be amalgamated. A yellow tone is used to fill the entire panting, with intentional drippings of paint on the canvas, which is the first step executed by the artist to capture the audience's attention. The blistering lips, bleeding nose and swollen ears are the foretelling signs of flesh decomposition. The narrow unfocused eyes have a look of indifference to worldly matters, shamelessly looking straight at the distraught spectator. The mundane subject is used to illustrate the feelings of spiritual depravity and disillusionment deriving from capitalism and consumerism in the rapidly changing China.