Unknown horizons

Liu Xiaodong's biography

Born in 1963 in Jincheng, Liaoning province, Liu Xiaodong received professional art training throughout his high school, undergraduate and postgraduate days in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has been teaching in his alma mater since 1994.

Unlike other leading contemporary Chinese artists who focus on expressive symbols and concepts, Liu focuses on the most ordinary people.

Liu is best known for his on-site painting, in which he goes to an actual site and paints people who are already there, instead of inviting models to a painting studio.

His most successful work is the Three Gorges series created in 2004 and 2005. The Breeding Ground No 1 from the series was auctioned for 57.12 million yuan ($9.2 million) in 2008, setting the record for all his auctioned works.

Liu is also widely involved in the film industry. He acted in director Wang Xiaoshuai's movie Winter Spring Days in 1992, and co-planned the movie Still Life with director Jia Zhangke in 2006.

In 2010 Liu was featured in the documentary Hometown Boy, supervised by Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien. The documentary won the Best Documentary Award at the 48th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards in 2011.

Fired up by clay	Zhang Tonglu's cloisonne art works exhibited in HK