Liu Bolin
Chinese artist
Liu Bolin (simplified Chinese: 刘勃麟; traditional Chinese: 劉勃麟; pinyin: Liú Bólín; born 7 January 1973) is a Chinese contemporary artist who specialises in self-portraits where he is disguised to match his surroundings. 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's most popular works are from his "Hiding in the City" series, photographic works that began as performance art in 2005 in response to the artists' village in which he worked in Beijing being demolished in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Since his first solo shows in Beijing in 1998, Liu'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), Klein Sun Gallery in New York (2008), Galerie Paris-Beijing in Paris and Brussels (2013), Boxart Gallery in Verona (2008), Forma Foundation for Photography in Milan (2010), and the H. C. Andersen Museum in Rome (2012).
Personal life
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. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China.
Series
Hiding in the City
Liu was moved to create his "Hiding in the City" series after the destruction of the Beijing artists' village Suo Jia Cun in November 2005. At the time of the destruction, Liu had been working in Suo Jia Cun, previously given the title of Asia's largest congregation of artists.
“Liu Bolin” enters the record as chinese artist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bolin, Chinese and artist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Liu Bolin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bolin, Chinese and artist provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q710377. VIAF identifies the subject as 223473799. The Library of Congress control number is no2012007678. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1973, 1995, 2001 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Liu Bolin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.