Liu Xia
Beijing, 1959.She lives and works in Berlin
Liu Xia is a poet, painter and photographer.
For over three decades she has been one of the most notable figures of the contemporary Chinese art world. Her work in various media focuses on freedom of expression but remains rooted in traditional Chinese values and styles. Liu Xia is prohibited from public exhibit in China and her work is shown only in private or on the Internet till the first world première in Boulogne-Billancourt.
During the 1980s, she fell in love with the writer and intellectual Liu Xiaobo: he moved into her apartment, owned by her one-time employer, the Beijing tax office. The two are different in personality. Liu Xia once told to a Western journalist, “I’m not politically involved. I behave as if I live in a different world. We discuss politics as little as possibile at home. My husband knows that it doesn’t interest me”. She stood by Liu Xiaobo during his imprisonment after Tiananmen in 1989-1991 and again during a period of so-called house arrest which he suffered at an unknown location in Beijing in 1995-1996. When he was committed for a term of labor reeducation in 1996, Liu Xia applied to the camp authorities for permission to marry him.
Her association with Liu Xiaobo has cost Liu Xia her right to display and publish her creative work that has been banned in China since 1989, even though she was not a participant in Tiananmen and did not sign Charter 08, the liberal manifesto that triggered Liu Xiaobo’s latest and longest prison sentence, an 11-year sentence imposed in December 2009.
After Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Liu Xia was put under house arrest. She has been deprived of all means of contact since January 2011.
Recent exhibitions:
2016
Milan, MIA Photo Fair
2015
Turin, Raffaella De Chirico Contemporary Art, The Silent Strength of Liu Xia
Berlin, Martin Gropius Bau, Liu Xia - a photographer from China
2014
Bratislava, Galeria Cypriana Majernika, Liu Xia
Prague, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, The Silent Strength of Liu Xia
2013
Hamburg, Kunsthalle
Barcelona, Monjuich Cultural Centre
Richmond, Richmond University of Virginia
Tokyo, International Press Centre
Kyoto, Foil Gallery
Los Angeles, Claremont McKenna College
Naples, Festival dei Diritti Umani
2012
New York, Columbia University, The Silent Strength of Liu Xia
Hong Kong, City University
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Taipei, National 228 Memorial Museum
Berlin, 12th International Library Festival
Madrid, City Cultural Centre
Warsaw, Soho Factory
2011
Boulogne Billancourt, The Silent Strength of Liu Xia