Liu Shiming was one of the best-known modern Chinese sculptors whose works represent a unique fusion of folk art and modern themes and contexts. The genius died in 2010, and eight years after that, the Central Academy of Fine Arts established the Liu Shiming Sculpture Museum in Beijing, China. In New York, the artist’s legacy is preserved by the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, a non-profit organization launched in 2021 to popularize Shiming’s unique heritage and make it accessible to American art enthusiasts, students, and researchers. The Foundation also runs Liu Shiming Art Gallery, which Fine Art Shippers was happy to visit this week.
A Closer Acquaintance with Liu Shiming
Liu Shiming (1926-2010) was an influential Chinese sculptor who contributed immensely to the development of Chinese sculpture. A graduate of the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, Shiming became one of the pioneers of Chinese sculptural art and the country’s representative in the global art stage after the PRC’s foundation.
Liu Shiming created a number of monumental sculptures while in Beijing and moved to the countryside in 1960, crafting his sculptural works in rural settings among the peasants and villagers. The artist also studied ancient Chinese sculpture in detail and fused many centuries-old traditions with modern elements in his unique works.
Shiming’s sculptural masterpieces are in permanent collections around the world, including at the Czech National Museum, the American University in Cairo, Georgia State University, and Macaulay Honors College in Manhattan, among others.
About Liu Shiming Art Gallery
Liu Shiming Art Gallery is a project recently launched by the Liu Shiming Art Foundation. The gallery, which occupies 1,800 square feet of commercial space in Midtown Manhattan, is entirely dedicated to the art of Liu Shiming. Its inaugural show, From the Beginning, featuring over 35 Shiming’s sculptures, was on view from March to mid-August 2024. In May, the gallery also hosted “Liu Shiming: Sculpture as Truth,” a talk dedicated to the artist’s idiosyncratic methods and role in postwar sculpture.
As dedicated fans of Asian art, we truly enjoyed our recent visit to the Liu Shiming Art Foundation and the Gallery and look forward to our further collaboration with this unique institution.