Liu Bolin: Order out of Chaos

New York, NY, March 30, 2024 - Eli Klein Gallery is thrilled to present Order out of Chaos, Liu Bolin’s ninth solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will debut the artist’s much anticipated new sculpture series Chaos - marking an important evolution of the “invisible man” who now transforms others “invisible.” The exhibition will also present Liu’s recent photographs, continuing the development of his world-renowned Hiding in the City series. Running through May 25, 2024, this show is the artist's response to the increasingly digitized society.

For the first time, Liu’s performance of “concealing” becomes an act of “sensing,” with him holding a 3D scanner performing the action of scanning his subjects, whether they be a woman holding a cat, a man texting on a smartphone, or the artist himself. The subject is always in a meditative state. When the scanning process begins, the target completely releases him/herself (disappearing) from his/her physical state, and only communicates with his/her inner self. Liu Bolin is the observer and sensor throughout the performance: he deliberately uses an out-dated 3D scanner due to its unique capability to create a fragmented and torn aesthetic when the sculptures were produced, hinting at the impossibility of disappearing completely in the digital world. The out-dated scanner and computer program create a system of colors that are applied arbitrarily as per the different layers of scans. Liu did not attempt to alter these color patterns upon painting the sculptures, an act of yielding power to the machine.

Trained professionally as a sculptor, Liu Bolin surprisingly sourced his inspiration of Chaos from Rondanini Pietà - Michelangelo’s final unfinished work. Even though Michelango’s work had been completed 450 years prior to Chaos, Liu views this sculpture as the grand master’s most contemporary work which actually depicts multiple faces and out-of-the-body limbs. Liu believes that Rondanini Pietà, which seems eerily modern, hints at the inevitability of machine-produced imagery taking over contemporary visual culture.

Chaos - Me, the largest scale sculpture in the exhibition, shows Liu Bolin’s own body, and is hollow so as to permit inspection inside out. This is because Liu believes the process of self-inspection creates a “fourth dimension,” which is illustrated by the fact that this sculpture comes in numerous parts and can be assembled at varying distances.

In the Hiding in the City series, Liu Bolin continues to explore the possibility of his body’s disappearance in a physical sense by concealing himself. This selection of photos showcases his acute observations and questioning of global cultural, social, and political issues. Central Park is a collaboration between Liu Bolin and Annie Leibovitz, capturing the autumn scenery of New York's Central Park. Liu is performing in this photograph, of which Annie Leibovitz is the photographer. HK Message Wall is displayed to the public for the first time since its creation, documenting Liu Bolin's reflections on the proposed Anti-Extradition Law Amendment in Hong Kong in 2019. Liu Bolin blends into the wall of the Tai Po Market station in the Hong Kong subway, which is covered with slogans, drawings, and graffiti. Hidden within these writings and images, which were quickly removed by the authorities, are the voices of some courageous Hong Kong people advocating for their rights and interests through non-verbal resistance. Hiding in Italy - Fruit Juices was shot by Liu Bolin in the suburb of Verona, Italy. Liu Bolin hides among the colorful and vibrant fruit juice shelves to demonstrate the connection between commodities and consumer life, furthering his critique on the global inequality in food access.

About Liu Bolin:

Liu Bolin was born in 1973 in Shandong, China. After graduating from the Shandong Academy of Fine Arts in 1995, he enrolled in Central Academy of Fine Arts and received his MFA in 2001. Known internationally as “The Invisible Man,” Liu Bolin sprang from a generation of artists struggling with the consequences of the Cultural Revolution and the rapid economic development in the decades after. Traversing mediums such as performance, photography, painting, sculpture, digital media, and social activism, Liu Bolin dissects the tense relationship between the individual and society by ‘disappearing’ into environments that are sites of intrigue, contention, and criticism.

His "Hiding in the City" series has been displayed in numerous museums and institutions across the globe. Inspired by his powerful visual messages, artists, institutions, and organizations such as The Louvre (Paris, France), The Hirshhorn Museum (Washington D.C., USA), Fernando Botero, JR, Carlos Cruz-Diez, and Kenny Scharf have invited Liu Bolin to collaborate on creative projects. In 2013, Liu presented a TED talk in Long Beach, California. In 2015, Liu was selected by United Nations backed campaign The Global Goals to create an image that conveyed 17 goals – including ending poverty, encouraging sustainable development and fight inequality and injustice – where he hid himself within 193 flags of the world. In 2016 and 2017 he participated in collaborations with Annie Leibovitz and Moncler. In 2024 he was commissioned by LVMH for a performance and photograph.

Liu Bolin’s recent institutional solo exhibitions include Mimetismi, Museo di Scienze e Archeologia, Rovereto, Italy (2024); Hiding In Florence, Sala d'Arme of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (2023); (In)visible - the Art of Liu Bolin, Deodato Arte, Lugano, Switzerland (2023); Liu Bolin: Visible/Invisible, Museo delle Culture, Milan (2019); Liu Bolin/Camouﬂage - Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (2019); Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man, The Gaviria Palace, Madrid (2019); Liu Bolin: Continuous Reﬂe(a)ction, Riverside Art Museum, Beijing (2019); The Bigger Picture - Liu Bolin, Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Almere, The Netherlands (2019); Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man, Erarta Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2018); Liu Bolin: The Theatre of Appearances, Musée de L'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2018); Liu Bolin: L'homme caméléon, Le DIDAM, Bayonne, France (2018); and Liu Bolin: Ghost Stories, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2017).

Liu Bolin’s work has been featured in renowned institutions worldwide including Between Performance and Documentation, Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York (2023); Letters from Overseas: Zooming into the De Molina’s Collection, Coral Gables Museum, Florida (2023); The Wild Theatre, Arton Art Centre, Shenzhen, China (2023); i know you are, but what am i? (De)Framing Identity and the Body, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, Utah (2022); Tumultes, Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier, Orleans, France (2022); SENSORAMA, Museo d'Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy (2022); The Supermarket of Images, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2021); The Photography Is Not What's Important, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2021); Nourrir le corps nourrit l’esprit, Centre D'art Contemporain de Meymac, Meymac, France (2021); Super Fusion - 2021 Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu, China (2021); When Speed Become Form - Live in Your Screen, Wind H Art Center, Beijing (2020); The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida Gainesville, Florida [itinerary: University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago] (2019); Time Frames: Contemporary East Asian Photography, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland (2019); I eat, therefore I am, Musée de L'Homme, Paris (2019); Humans, Bernard Magrez Cultural Institute, Bordeaux, France (2019); Art Eats Art, Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille, France (2019); Colors of Contemporary China: A Passion of Collectors, Saint-Remi Museum, Reims, France (2019); Chinese Whispers: Recent Art from the Sigg Collection, MAK Contemporary Art Collection, Vienna, Austria (2019); The Bigger Picture, Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Almere, The Netherlands (2019); Urban Art Biennale 2019, The World Cultural Heritage Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Germany (2019); The Gaze of History - Contemporary Chinese Art Revisited, Jupiter Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China (2019); 180 Years of Photography in China, The Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, Ningxia, China (2019); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China (2018); Hybridizations: The Ghost of Painting, Whitebox Art Center, Beijing (2018); Evidence: A New State of Art, Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, Italy (2018); Every Body Talks, Mattatoio Roma, Rome, Italy (2018); Forty Years of Sculpture, Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition, Shenzhen, China (2017); Long Island Collects: New Photography, Nassau County Museum of Art, New York (2017); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography (1976-2017), Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2017); Portrait(s) Festival 2017, Ville de Vichy, Vichy, France (2017); The First Shandong Youth Contemporary Art Documents Exhibition, JiaJian Art Museum, Jinan, China (2017) and; Biennale Archipelago Mediterranean, Cultural Shipyards alla Zisa-Palermo Dusseldorf Pavilion, Palermo, Italy (2017).

Liu Bolin has performed at institutions and venues including Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2019), Art Basel Miami (2018), and Centre Pompidou (2017), among many others. His works are in major collections such as the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; M+ Museum Uli Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; Fondation Ariane de Rothschild, Madrid, Spain; Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; Fist Art Foundation, Dorado, Puerto Rico; the Fidelity Corporate Art Collection, Boston, MA; The Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK; Museo Enzo Ferrari, Modena, Italy; and Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY.

Liu Bolin currently lives and works in Beijing.

Inquiries:
Eli Klein Gallery
Eli Klein, eli@galleryek.com | +1 212-255-4388

Download PDF

Opening Reception with the Artist: Saturday, March 30 | 6-8 PM

March 30 – June 29, 2024

Press Release