Liu Wei (Chinese, b.1965) is a painter associated with the Cynical Realism movement and best known for his semi-abstract depictions of flowers and landscapes. Born in Beijing, he studied printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and became part of the Cynical Realism movement after graduating in 1989. That year marked the Tiananmen Square Incident and the cancellation of an official avant-garde exhibition, and Liu Wei, like many other Chinese artists, felt disenchanted with the authorities. In one of Liu Wei’s well-known paintings titled New Generation (1990), the childhood figures of the artist and his brother are sitting in front of a large image of Mao. Liu Wei suggests that Mao has become a historical icon, not a significant influence on everyday life in China, and the resurgence of political control and conservatism cannot take the same form. Over time, Liu Wei’s work has become more abstract and less political, dealing instead with universal themes of decay, death, and the manipulation of expression. The loose brushwork of his more recent work shows strong influences of Chinese calligraphy, ink-brush painting, and Abstract Expressionism. His work has been exhibited at the Shanghai Gallery of Art, the Guangdong Art Museum in Guangzhou, China, and the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei. He lives and works in Beijing.