Editor’s note:

I am still painting the same subject I have always been drawn to, everyday people. They don’t have to be Chinese subjects, although I think that has been an expectation of Chinese artists for the last few years.

Warm Bed No.2, 2006, oil on canvas.

In the West, contemporary Chinese art has become the subject of intense fascination and speculation. AT WORK: Twenty-five Contemporary Chinese Artists by writer and photographer Jon Burris profiles 25 top contemporary Chinese painters, sculptors, photographers and conceptual artists. It shows why many believe China is the next “tidal wave” of opportunity for art collectors: the sheer creative output, the artistic variety and diversity now blooming from within a country where, only a few decades ago, such expression would have been repressed. The book takes the reader into the artists’ studios and presents intimate glimpses into their life and work, offering a lingering portrait of the contemporary Chinese art scene. This year we will serialize the book, published by Foreign Languages Press in 2011, which details the historical, political and cultural mimesis shaping China’s contemporary artists.

 I can remember thinking that his figurative paintings of people, mostly friends, family, fellow students and artists, were as immediate and forceful as anything I had seen by any other contemporary Chinese artist. Liu’s paintings were honest and direct. Stylistically, they were expressionistic, full of energy and color, yet they were realistic enough to define their subjects: everyday people in settings anyone could relate to.