(Photo By Zhang Wei/China Daily)
Liu's work Disobeying the Rules, depicting a group of naked workers on a truck, was sold for $8.5 million at Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong last October.
Before that, some of his works had already fetched millions of dollars at auction houses in China.
Liu has visited most cities in China and many abroad. But every time he goes to a city, he is there to find ordinary people to paint. Jade diggers in Hotan in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, soldiers in Taiwan, Chinese-Indonesians and even his friends in his hometown. They all go on his canvas.
"I like them. They are very real and don't hide their emotions. They're much easier to deal with.
"Sometimes their lives are bad, and unfair things happen to them, but they face them positively," says Liu of his models. He started portraying the underclass in the 1990s.
Sans says that like his models, the artist is very real. He does things by himself, from replacing broken bulbs to fixing leaking sewage.
After completing a project, Liu says he stays in his studio, drinking tea and meeting friends. Then, when all his thoughts come together, he sets out for another project.
So where will he go next?
Liu says he chooses the place on a whim.
