Call him the human chameleon. Chinese artist Liu Bolin has an amazing “superpower:” the ability to blend into any surrounding, using incredibly detailed paint schemes.
His latest installation took him to Caracas, Venezuela, where he blended in with a comic book stand, and painted others onto life-sized versions of Bolivars, Venezuela’s currency; as well as a corn flour package.
“I went to the supermarket and realized how worried Venezuelans are with the problem of inflation. And so I wanted to express my idea through the currency, to reflect the relationship between money and people. The other work is corn flour. It is a product that is scarce in Venezuela and I saw that everyone wants to buy it. And that’s the idea I wanted to express in my work,” he said.
Below are images from several of his projects over the last few years.
Liu Bolin is an artist born in China’s Shandong province in 1973, and he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995 and his Master of Fine Arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2001.
His work has been exhibited in museums around the world. Also known as “The Invisible Man”, Liu Bolin’s most popular works are from his “Hiding in the City” series; photographic works that began as performance art in 2005.
Liu belongs to the generation that came of age in the early 1990s, when China emerged from the rubble of the Cultural Revolution and was beginning to enjoy rapid economic growth and relative political stability.
Since his first solo shows in Beijing in 1998, Liu Bolin’s work has received international recognition. Among other international venues, his distinctive photographs and sculptures have been shown at the major contemporary photography festival Les Rencontres d’Arles and he had solo shows at Dashanzi Art Zone in Beijing (2007), Galerie Bertin-Toublanc in Paris (2007), Eli Klein Fine Art in New York (2008), Galerie Paris-Beijing in Paris and Brussels (2013), Boxart Gallery in Verona (2008), Forma Foundation for Photography in Milan (2010).
To celebrate US President Obama’s visit to China, he made an effigy of Obama in his honor. He now lives and works in Beijing, China. Liu Bolin is represented by Eli Klein Fine Art in New York, NY. Galerie Paris-Beijing in Paris and Brussels. In June 2011, Liu Bolin created his Hiding in New York series, in which he incorporated iconic New York sites into his work. In January 2013, Bolin created the artwork for New Jersey hard rock band Bon Jovi’s 2013 album What About Now. SOURCE (TIMENETWORK.CA)
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