His thickly layered paint, cool color palette, liberal use of white, for both ground and figure, and bright accent marks create a poignant, distinct style. The physicality of the paint and the personality of the figures, captured in a few simple strokes, create a powerful viewing experience. His style merges the reality-bending ambiguousness of Cubism with the contemplativeness of traditional Chinese landscape and the emotional impact of Abstract Expressionism.
© Liu Shuishi, Courtesy Chase Contemporary
Liu Shuishi, No Opinion, 2013
A new retrospective of painter Liu Shuishi is christening Chase Contemporary’s new gallery space in New York City. The first retrospective of his fifteen-year career, the exhibition collects a large body of Shuishi’s work. Shuishi believes thought is the carrier of art, and his paintings are meditations on the isolation and instability of contemporary life. Influenced by German and Abstract Expressionism and traditional Chinese calligraphy, his brushstrokes are bold and gestural. His elongated figures in colorfully patterned robes present thoughtful tableaus, reflecting his lifelong interest in philosophy and art history.
© Liu Shuishi, Courtesy Chase Contemporary
Liu Shuishi, Leaving the Boundaries of Thought, 2015
© Liu Shuishi, Courtesy Chase Contemporary
Liu Shuishi, Exploration of Sex, 2015, oil on Canvas
Born in 1962, Shuishi studied at the Xi’An Academy of Fine Arts and the Hong Kong Baptist University. He has exhibited at the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, the Salon Du Carrousel du Louvre in 2009, The Grand Palace Paris in 2009, National Art Museum of China Beijing in 2006, as well as major galleries in China, Paris and New York.
The exhibition runs September 8 through October 13, 2018, at Chase Contemporary's new gallery space, located at 521 West 23rd Street, New York.
