Liu Xiaodong’s Hometown Boy

Liu Xiaodong
Hometown Boy
17 November 2010 – 20 February 2011

798 Art District, No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road
Chaoyang District
Beijing, China 100015

www.ucca.org.cn

This November, UCCA presents Liu Xiaodong: Hometown Boy, an intensive look into the practice of one of China’s most accomplished painters. For this solo show, created specifically for UCCA, Liu Xiaodong returned to his hometown of Jincheng in Liaoning Province to spend three months painting his family and childhood friends while documenting the experience through diary entries, sketches and photographs. In addition to the 20 new paintings and over 200 pages of diary entries on display, the exhibition also features a documentary about Liu Xiaodong’s homecoming by famed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Through painting, writing and film, Hometown Boy offers an unusually panoramic view of Liu Xiaodong’s Jincheng memories, past and present.

When Liu Xiaodong left his hometown as an aspiring 17-year-old art student, Jincheng was a bustling little town where life revolved around the local paper mill. Three decades later, the physical, social and economic landscape has changed drastically: Jincheng’s narrow streets and houses remain, but the local economy has crumbled, unemployment is rampant, and years of environmental degradation have taken their toll. For the artist, it is a homecoming in which observations and depictions of the present are tinged with recollections of a vanished past.

At the same time, multimedia artist Yang Yong will light up the UCCA Nave with an installation of 200 lamps in a solo exhibition entitled Lightscape. Continuing the “Curated By…” series, UCCA invites renowned Chinese sculptor Sui Jianguo to curate a new exhibition 84 Days, 84 Works by Lu Zhengyuan. Indian artistic duo Thukral & Tagra bring their signature style to UCCA this November with Match Fixed, a delightfully gaudy and wickedly playful exhibition about social hypocrisy, sexual double standards and the clash of culture, tradition and global aspiration in modern-day India.

About UCCA
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a non-profit, comprehensive art center founded in Beijing by collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007. UCCA presents exhibitions of established and emerging artists and develops a trusted platform to share knowledge through education and research.

Editorial Contacts:
Sybella Chow
TEL: 86 10 8610 8308
FAX: 86 10 8459 9717
EMAIL: sybella.chow@ucca.org.cn