Liu Ke 刘可

Artist Biography：

Liu Ke (b. 1976, Ningxiang, Hunan, China).Liu Ke is a contemporary Chinese artist who embodies multiple roles as creator, educator, and spatial practitioner. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1999, and his Master’s degree in 2003, after which he remained at the academy as a faculty member. He is currently Vice Dean of the School of Painting and Drawing at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Director of the Oil Painting Department, Professor, and Executive Director of the OCT Boxes Art Museum.Liu Ke’s artistic practice began in the late 1990s. Over more than two decades of continuous creation, he has navigated between academic tradition and contemporary experimentation. His painterly language has undergone a clear evolution: from early explorations of narrative lines, to his signature style after 2012—constructing images with strip-like colour blocks, where vertically arranged colour bands interpenetrate, overlap, and layer upon one another, creating rhythms while maintaining a delicate spatial balance.

In 2017, he initiated the Montagne Sainte-Victoire series, inspired by Cézanne, employing fragmentary superimposition to construct multiple planes, drawing lines and colour blocks into infinite proximity, breaking away from the earlier relatively orderly vertical structure. Professor Yi Ying of the Central Academy of Fine Arts has commented that his “restless, unsettled thoughts are not floating, but anxious and entangled—he awaits, amidst the mountain ranges of art, a revelation that will lead him out of them”—an observation that precisely captures the essential quality of his practice.

Exhibition Record

Solo Exhibitions

2026 “ECCE HOMO: PROF Liu Ke” Solo Exhibition, Giovanni Bonelli Gallery, Milan, Italy

2025 “Look, This”, Guangdong Contemporary Art Center, Guangzhou

2025 “Composite Force: Liu Ke Solo Exhibition”, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Art Museum, Chongqing

2025 “Timeline · Between East and West” (Three-Person Exhibition with Zhao Jun and Fausto Roma), University of Cassino, Cassino, Italy

2023 “The Sea on the Left”, Whitestone Gallery, Hong Kong

2023 “Silent Whirlpool – Inoue Katsuya, Kwon Sunik, Liu Ke” (Three-Person Exhibition), Whitestone Gallery, Beijing

2023 Liu Ke Solo Exhibition, K Space, Chengdu

2022 “Liu Ke – Untitled Questions”, Renteng Space, Guangzhou

2021 “My Heart Is the Vortex”, One Art Museum, Beijing

2021 “Every Day Is the Last Day, Every Day Is the First Day”, K Space, Chengdu

2019 “Abstraction & Figuration in Homeland: Liu Ke Art Exhibition”, Munich State Studio Gallery, Munich, Germany

2019 “Passage: Liu Ke Solo Exhibition”, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Guangzhou

2019 “Homeland · Timeline: Liu Ke Works”, Kempten Art Museum, Kempten, Germany

2018 “Montagne Sainte-Victoire, Liu Ke”, Hive (Shenzhen) Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen

2015 “Listening Above the Azure”, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

2014 “Beyond Form”, JI Space, Guangzhou

2013 “Strip Control”, Space Station, Beijing

2011 “Predicament”, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Guangzhou

2010 “Predicament” Liu Ke Solo Exhibition, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Guangzhou

2008 “Listen to the Wolves”, Pretty Land Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 “New China Pulse: Experience the New Generation of Art!” , Karuizawa New Art Museum, Karuizawa, Japan

2026 “Beyond Expression – Reconstructing the Introverted Structure of Painting”, Yue Mei Contemporary Art Center, Shenzhen

2025 “Concealed Narratives: Liu Ke & Xiong Lijun Two-Person Exhibition”, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Art Museum, Chongqing

2024 “Guang Mei – Echo of the Couvent des Cordeliers”, Couvent des Cordeliers, Avignon, France

2023 “15238 – Rhythm Group Exhibition”, Augsburg Art Association Museum (Holbein House Museum), Germany

2021 “Folding: Nobuo Sekine, Liu Ke, Wu Shan, Yan Bo”, Platform China, Beijing

2021 “Apollo’s Garden”, ART404 GALLERY

2020 “Pearl River Delta Contemporary – Unit 3: The Magical World Within Blank Existence”, Cattle Depot Artist Village, Macao

2020 “The Everyday of Fusion”, K Space, Chengdu

2019 The 13th National Art Exhibition – Selected Works in Beijing, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2019 “Overpass: Intersecting Experiences”, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan

2019 “De Stijl and Beyond – Sino-European Contemporary Abstract Artists Group Exhibition”, United Art Museum, Wuhan

2018 “Abstract Plus – New Possibilities of Abstract Painting in China”, Yuan Art Museum, Chongqing

2018 The 6th Guangzhou Triennial – OCT Boxes Art Museum Satellite Exhibition: Public Art Section “Symbiotic Future”, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Shunde

2017 “A New Destiny – Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition · Guangdong Station”, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou

2017 “Shenzhen Industrial Station” – 2017 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Luohu Satellite Venue, Shenzhen Industrial Station, Shenzhen

2017 “Parke”, Huayi Gallery Guangzhou & Kerlin Gallery Dublin, Guangzhou & Hong Kong

2016 “Renteng – The Autonomous Dimension of a Residential Art Institution”, Boxes Art Space, Shenzhen

2015 “The Boundaries of Order: Chinese Approaches to Abstract Painting”, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

2014 “Positive Space”, Times Museum, Guangzhou

2013 Reflective Nature # a new primary enchanting sensitivity, Kenya Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2013 The 3rd Chongqing Art Biennale – “Urban Illusions”, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing

2012 “The Most Painting – China Youth Oil Painting Exhibition”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2011 “Cold Blood – Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Longyibang Gallery, Beijing

2010 “Who Cares – Contemporary Art in Guangdong”, 53 Art Museum, Guangzhou

Art Fairs

2021 Art Beijing Contemporary Art Fair, K Space, National Agricultural Exhibition Center, Beijing
2017 Art Shenzhen, presented by Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center, Shenzhen