Liu Jian (Chinese, 1961 - )

Liu Jian is a native of Shanghai, China and now resides in Vancouver, Canada. As a young man in China, Liu Jian attended the Art Institute of Beijing where he received his bachelor of art degree. He became the resident painter and lecturer at the Chinese Painting Academy of Shanghai in 1982 - a position he held until 1985. Then in 1985, he became a part-time lecturer at the Shanghai Vocational School of Arts and the Director of the Shanghai Youth Artist Association. During this time, Liu Jian’s work was strongly calligraphic. He was working with abstractions of the traditional landscape and textual themes though still within the context of traditional Chinese brush painting. In 1987, Liu Jian visted Germany and a new world was opened to him. He was very impressed by the work of Joseph Beuys, saying that "each of them (the works)has the existential aura of a found object. It is as if God had created it - the artist is no longer present in the work. All great art has this quality." From 1989 forward, Liu Jian incorporated these new influences into his own paintings. He utilized bold brush strokes, drips and splashes of color with the chinese ink. Then, following the Tiananmen square massacre, he moved to Canada where he completed a series of somber canvases with overt political references. Next, he turned to experimentations with oils and acrylics on canvas. Liu Jian loves to experiment with his techniques and media because he believes that, "The problems facing painting are formal problems. When the solution of a problem takes form, a painting is born."

Since relocating to Canada, Liu Jian has served as the director of the Ontario Chinese Art Association and as the director for the Gallery of Ontarion for Chinese Art. He has shown regularly in Hong Kong with Alison Fine Art and in Toronto. He has also shown in Verona, Italy; in Taibei, Taiwan; in London, England; in Paris, France; in Barcelona, Spain; in Munich & Hamburg, Germany; in Shanghai, China and in New York City in the United States. His work is featured in the collections of Prince Haik Zaruan of Austria, Ms. Hope Rockefeller of New York, The National Bank of Canada in Hong Kong, the United States Embassy of Brunei, Feoso Oil, ltd., Robert Mondavi of California, Bill Kohrs of IBM, the Union Swiss Bank and the Belgian Consulate in Hong Kong among others.