Liu Qinghe 刘庆和

Born in Tianjin in 1961, Liu Qinghe graduated from the Tianjin Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1976, and later received graduate training from both the Folk Art Department and the Chinese Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. Over the years, Liu has sought to find ways to make ink painting relevant to contemporary life and has created a series of paintings that focus on fleeting moments in people's daily lives. His broad brushstrokes and vivid draftsmanship, derived from the long tradition of the conceptual sketch (xieyi) style, are used to enhance his depiction of the reality of individual human beings grappling with the hard realities of industrializing China. Water is a frequent subject in Liu Qinghe's paintings. Depicting the isolation and helplessness of swimmers in the water, Liu evokes the crisis and pressure that people undergo in today's world. In the Growth series, Liu has created a series of crying children whose vulnerability and insecurity reflect urban anomie. His work is collected by the Embassy of Australia, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, National Art Museum in Beijing, and Shanghai Art Museum.