PROVENANCE:

The son of a general, Liu Wei graduated from the Woodblock Print Department of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, and rapidly emerged as one of the leading figures in the "cynical realist" school. He uses his art to satirize and mock, holding nothing sacred. Liu's brushwork, which is reminiscent of signage, and his compositional technique, challenge the viewer's aesthetic sensibilities; he uses distortion and deformation to depict the polluted, corrupted products of industrial society. At the same time, in a seemingly contradictory manner, Liu's paintings also exude a kind of romantic, poetic aura and sense of beauty.

From the mid-1990s onwards, Liu Wei's work began to reflect the influence of the Impressionists, Chinese calligraphy, and traditional Chinese ink brush painting, and he gradually developed a semi-abstract style. The subject matter of Liu's paintings became more commonplace, in works where he transformed dogs, people, flowers and plants into unrecognizable images.

Liu Wei's interpretation of "Dog No. 2" is strange and disturbing. The dog's bright eyes reveal an unstable emotional state, suggesting a sense of fear. The long, thin trace of white oils resembles a trail of tears gradually dissolving into the gray canvas, hinting at the loneliness, tension and sense of alienation of the individual in modern society.