Born in Shandong in 1973, Liu Wentao currently resides in Beijing. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in printmaking at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a master’s degree in painting from the School of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Enveloped in pencil-drawn lines, Liu’s canvas does not only act as a token of appreciation for the simple shapes in his life – walls, doors, windows, and shadows – but it also reveals his understanding of Zen as proposed in traditional Chinese philosophy and the abstract geometrical style as promoted by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). On account of his flair for delivering such intricate and expressive work, as well as his talent for mesmerising and bewitching the viewer, Liu Wentao is manifestly a leading artist of our times.