Favourite Artist #31 (LIU YE / 劉野)

"But as with fairy tales themselves, something sinister sometimes creeps onto Liu's canvases. In “Who's Afraid of Madame L,” a pretty woman dressed as a schoolgirl holds a cane with her outstretched hands..."

- Anna Sansom (Whitewall)


Liu Ye's "Who is afraid of Madame L," 2005

Liu Ye's "Banned Book," 2006


"Liu Ye's studio bears evidence of his continued zest for children's literature in the stuffed-animal versions of Dick Bruna's Miffy that sit on a shelf next to catalogues of Bruna's work. Miffy, the funny bunny drawn with few lines and even fewer colors, appears in many of Liu's paintings, accompanying a girl to an art gallery. In concert with Miffy's Dutch origins, the two are always examining Mondrian's vibrant compositions of red, blue, and yellow. Perhaps it is a comment on the melding of high and low art, or on children's potential to absorb challenging ideas-or perhaps it is a subtle endorsement of the value of exposing people of all ages to international culture."

- Barbara Pollack (Modern Painters)


Liu Ye's "Boogie Woogie, Little Girl," 2005

Liu Ye's "International Blue," 2006

Installation view at Sperone Westwater Gallery

Liu Ye's "Once Upon a Time in Broadway," 2006


"...the paintings of Snow White, the girl in her dancing red shoes, and the portrait of Hans Christian Andersen perhaps initially seem somewhat apart from the others. Coincidentally, in the year that people around the world celebrated the bicentennial of the Danish storyteller’s birth, Liu Ye embarked upon a series of paintings derived from Hans Christian Andersen’s great body of fairy tales, including these three paintings. In truth, as a source of inspiration, the universe of Hans Christian Andersen brought Liu Ye full circle, straight back to the world of his childhood, one possessed of a dark, perilous secret. For, contrary to the experience of most Chinese children of his generation, during Liu Ye’s formative years, he had been introduced to and become entirely familiar with the oeuvre of this extraordinary storyteller.

Liu Ye’s father worked as an author of children’s books. Although this was an era where even children’s reading matter was thoroughly controlled by political ideology, Liu Senior, as a member of the work unit of the children’s press, had access to a library of children’s books from around the world which included anthologies of stories from authors like Hans Christian Andersen."

- Karen Smith (Liu Ye: Temptations / Sperone Westwater)


Liu Ye's "Hans Christian Anderson in the Snow (After Albert Kuchler)", 2005

Installation view at Sperone Westwater Gallery

Liu Ye's "Snow White," 2006