EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
The Liu Shiming Art Foundation underwrites and organizes traveling exhibitions of Liu Shiming’s sculptures and hosts discussion panels with curators, researchers, and critics worldwide exploring the stories and values behind his inspiring art.
In March of 2024, the Liu Shiming Art Gallery will open with an inaugural exhibition, “From the Beginning: Sculptures by Liu Shiming.” The Gallery will feature thematic exhibitions of the sculptor’s work, as well as presenting shows that include other artists working in related traditions or exploring similar subjects.
Critics and curators' comments
“What’s perhaps most interesting about Liu was his conscious decision to cultivate Chinese traditional aesthetics in new ways, rather than adopting Western styles that were very much in vogue at the time.”
--Artnet (An online platform that connects galleries and collectors from around the world)
“Throughout his six decades of telling stories in his sculpture, Shiming’s personal faith in art was unwavering. The sculptures seem timeless, some even universal, channeling his deep passion and compassion through the lenses of his acceptance of life’s strange journey, his love for humanity and his own cultural heritage. We see a profound understanding of the weight of thousands of years of convention fused with his own view of the world, a view that celebrates and embraces the dignity and resilience of unacknowledged and anonymous lives, lives challenged by the economic and political upheavals and transformations of a modernizing society. ”
--Fran Kaufman(Curator, a partner in Kaufman Vardy Projects)
“Someone Who Wants to Fly” (1982) portrays a man stretching his arms, which are adorned with fake wings. Despite bricks carved into the base, his legs and feet once again are not fully molded. Is this dreamer still standing on solid ground, or actually taking flight? For an artist rendered immobile throughout much of his life, Liu’s centerpiece — presented at the gallery entrance — speaks to his ability to traverse the world through his art.”
--Billy Anania (Editor, critic, and journalist)
“Liu’s works are both unsentimental and universal. By merging folk techniques with modernist ideas about the human form, he created a completely new genre. This unique perspective brings a freshness and a lively dialogue to what sculpture can ultimately be.”
--Maria Cristina Pio (Co-Director; Director of Education and Administration, Godwin-Ternbach Museum)
--Louise Weinberg (Co-Director; Director of Exhibitions/Collections and Curator,Godwin-Ternbach Museum)
“Despite his recent success, Liu Shiming never lost his interest or devotion to traditional folk art. Rather than sculpture that aspired to attract followers of western modernism, Liu’s primary audience came from everyday working class people living in rural areas. “
--Robert C. Morgan Ph.D.
( Professor Emeritus in Art History at the Rochester Institute of Technology)
Attendees' comments
"With much gratitude to the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, we on Roosevelt Island have been give the great opportunity to reflect upon humanity in its simplest form. The universal messages of transcendence, survival, a purse to reflection on our current norms, and the emotions of human livelihood are infused into stagnant energies of the sculpted bronze."
"Truly a wonderful exhibition. The way I can relate and connect to so many pieces fills me with joy. Art that can connect with you is the realest art. I enjoyed every piece at the gallery."
"I was struck by the different perspectives on subjects and loved the innovative mixture of representational and freedom talking in the Jigong Drinking piece. Man with boat and Cormorants felt hauling. I also just learned about the sheepskin raft. Love the show, it was a really different experience for me."
"Themes for showing all the sculptures work for Roosevelt Island residents. I really enjoyed the exhibition and please do it more. The worshop is amazing and I know a lot more than before about all those sculpture works! sculture works!"
"The idea of love and caring is also an important message in the ethos of NYC and it is an integral part of the city's habitat. The artist reflected these feelings in many pieces such as the already mentioned “Mother and Child” and the "Eji and the Orphans". We the audience are captured by these emotions and brought and have a little respite from the cold life of a big never sleeping city."
"Thank you for sharing works of Liu to us. I thoroughly enjoyed his sculptures and his ability to capture human expressions in the faces of his subjects. The determination of Liu tiehua: the
self-reflection of Self Portrait(1989): the struggle of Cutting through Mountains; and the joy in the faces of children."