Person
Artist
Liu Zhuoquan
刘卓泉
Date of birth
1964
Place Of birth
Wuhan, Hubei, China
Biography
Born in Wuhan, Hubei Province in 1964, Liu Zhuoquan studied painting at Jianghan University in Wuhan. Liu’s practice encompasses painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance. In the exquisite miniature worlds that he creates, the past and present collide; he invites us to reconsider things we take for granted. Liu Zhuoquan’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout China, Singapore, France and Australia, including the 18th Biennale of Sydney in 2012. Working with traditional craftsmen in Hebei, masters of the ancient art of ‘neihua’ ('inside painting') once used to create the beautiful snuff bottles of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Liu Zhuoquan closely observes apparently insignificant things — birds, fish, animals and insects, plants and inanimate objects — as evidence of a changing society. Like many art and craft practices despised as relics of feudalism during the time of Mao, ‘neihua’ was essentially forbidden during the ‘Smash the Four Olds’ campaign of the Cultural Revolution, when ‘old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits’ were all to be destroyed. Painting with tiny curved brushes onto the inside surfaces of reclaimed glass vessels, Liu and his team of skilled artisans have reinvented this traditional practice. In the process he examines his own and China’s transformation. Liu Zhuoquan lives and works in Beijing.
