Biography

Liu Zheng was born in 1969 in Wuqiang County in Hebei province and grew up in Shanxi province. After studying optical engineering at Beijing Technology Institute, he served as a professional photojournalist for Worker's Daily from 1991 to 1997. For the past decade, Chinese artist Liu Zheng has been working on his ambitious photographic project "The Chinese." In the finished work, Zheng has captured a people and a country in a unique time of flux.

Zheng seeks out moments in which archetypal Chinese characters are encountered in extreme and unexpected situations. His subjects have included street eccentrics, homeless children, street performers, provincial drug traffickers, coal miners, Buddhist monks, prison inmates, Taoist priests, waxwork figures in historical museums, and the dead and dying. Zheng's photographs betray a dark vision, albeit one that is laced with offsetting humor.

C.V.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006		Liu Zheng: Survians, SOHO New Town, Beijing, China Under the Sun, Art Beijing 2006
2005		Liu Zheng: The Chinese, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2003		Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie, Arles, France
2002		2nd Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, Shanxi Province, China International Asian Photography Festival, Photo City Sagamihara, Sagamihara City, Japan
2001		The Chinese, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
1998		The Chinese/Three Realms, Taipei Photo Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006		Mahjong, Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Hamburg Kunsthall, Germany Beautiful Suffering: Photography and the Traffic in Pain, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA Fever Variations, The 6th Gwangju Biennale 2006, Korea The Chinese: Photography and Video from China, Stedelijk Museum’s – Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands
2005		Baroque and Neobaroque, DA2. Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spain Follow Me, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan About Beauty, House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany
2004–06		Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, International Center of Photography, New York, NY; Asia Society and Museum, New York, NY; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2004		The Chinese, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany Techniques of the Visible, 5th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China Me, Me, Me, Court Yard Gallery, Beijing, China Revolution, 798 Photo Gallery, Beijing, China

2003		Strangers: The First ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York, NY 50th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy A Strange Heaven, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czechoslovakia Paris-Pékin, Espace Cardin, Paris, France
2002		Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art, 1st Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
2001		A Man, A Woman, A Machine, Center of Attention Gallery, London, England Passage de Retz, Paris, France Next Generation, Galerie Loft, Paris, France From Inside the Body: Chinese New Photography and Video, Photographie Contemporaine Chinoise Ise Cultural Foundation, New York, NY
1999		Passe-murailles: Nouvelles scènes de l’art contemporain chinois, Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France Love: Chinese Contemporary Photography and Video, Tachikawa Art Festival, Tokyo, Japan Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the 20th Century, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, IL
1998		Contemporary Chinese Photography, Stadtische Kunstammlungen, Chemnitz, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany
1997		Contemporary Chinese Photography, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
1995		Topic '95 Five Person Exhibition, Beijing, China
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2006		Bo, Li. “Gallery: The Foreland of Photography Market.” Chinese Photography July 2006. Lynch, Mary Ann. “AIPAD: The Photography Show, 2006.” Camera Arts May/June 2006. Pollack, Barbara. “Inside the Business: Beijing.” Art & Auction March 2006.
2005		“China Watcher.” American Photo January/February 2005. Cotter, Holland. “Visions From Nigeria and India And a Van Searching for Utopia.” The New York Times 25 December 2005. Golden, Michelle. “Liu Zheng: The Chinese.” PDN 8 Aug. 2005; pg 22. Goodwin, James. “China’s Stars Starts to Rise in the West.” ArtReview August 2005. Hudson, Suzanne. “Liu Zheng: Yossi Milo Gallery.” ARTFORUM Oct. 2005; pg 276. Johnson, Ken. “Art in Review: Liu Zheng: The Chinese.” The New York Times 8 Jul. 2005. Kerr, Merrily. “Reviews: Liu Zheng: The Chinese.” Time Out New York 14-20 Jul. 2005. “Liu Zheng.” The New Yorker 11 & 18 July 2005. Mack, Joshua. “Liu Zheng: The Chinese.” Modern Painters Oct. 2005; pg 276. Meyers, William. “Man of Masks.” The New York Sun 14 Jul. 2005.
2002		Maggio, Meg. "Interview with Liu Zheng." Asian Art News Jul/Aug. 2002.
2001		Hung, Wu. "Photographing Deformity: Liu Zheng and His Photo Series 'My Countrymen.” Liu Zheng: The Chinese. New York: Steidl, 2001. Public Culture, vol. 13, no. 3, 2001. Du Magazine, Zurich, Nov. 2001.
2000		"The Chinese: Liu Zheng Photographs." Dragon Work 2000. Goodman, Jonathan. "Human, Demonic and Divine in the Photographs of Liu Zheng." Art on Paper Jan/Feb. 2000.
1998		"China New Photo." Photographers International 1998.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
		International Center of Photography, New York, NY Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA New Orleans Museum of Art. New Orleans, LA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, IL Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT