Artist portrays reality in bold exhibition

Mirrors [Photo/China.org.cn]

Chunks of irregular metal, jungles of mirrors and a big screen switched with pervasive single colors make up the exhibition of Liu Wei, known for his paintings during the wave of cynical realism in China's modern art history in the 1990s.

The ongoing exhibition, held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing's well-known 798 District, however, has nothing to do with those ironic paintings, but is rather a violent composition of modern materials.

Influenced by the unique urban landscapes taking shape amid the dramatic transformation of city layouts in China, the 43-year-old artist bombards his audience with his conspicuous and highly condensed artistic forms.

"When diving into the reality in the search of the truth, I found abstract expression was much more real than concrete representation, as the truth does not come from visions but from the senses," Liu said in a symposium held by UCCA for the opening ceremony of his exhibition on Feb. 7, 2015.

Living on the threshold between urban and rural areas in Beijing, Liu has witnessed much of the peripheral life which is neither industrialized nor globalized and where people have made everything with their own hands.

The underdeveloped and disordered life on the outskirts of the city inspired Liu to release a gush of emotion by recollecting and reorganizing the discarded materials, such as glass and metal, and arranging them amid the digitalized colors.