Liu Jianhua was born in 1962 in Ji’an, Jiangxi Province, China. In 1989, he graduated from Fine Art of Sculpture at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute. He taught at Department of Sculpture in Yunnan Academy Fineof Arts University in Kunming from 1989 to 2004, before moving to thesince when he has been teaching at Department of Sculpture atin Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, where he has been teaching ever since. The artist nowcurrently lives and works in Shanghai, China. 

Liu Jianhua is one of China’s best-known contemporary artists who experiments with comprehensive mixed media. Liu’s porcelain and mixed media works reflect the economic and social changes in China as well as the problems that follow suit. His “Regular Fragile” series, first shown at the Chinese Pavilion, of the Venice Biennale in 2003, is composed of porcelain replicas of daily everyday objects that privilege appearance and symbolism over function. In 2008, he shifted his previous close and direct attention on the problems emerginged in China from globalization and sharp social changes to “no meaning, no content,”, which declared the fairly new exploration of his creation with the works Untitled in 2008 and therefore since then has developed his own system of expression for contemporary art.

Liu Jianhua’s works have been exhibited at 14th Gwangju Biennale in 2023, solo exhibition at Fosun Art Foundation Shanghai in 2022, "Strange Clay" at London Hayward Gallery in 2022, "The Way We Eat" at Sydney Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2021, tour exhibition at Smart Museum of Art in 2020, "The Allure of Matter" at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2019, solo exhibition at Fondazione Made in Cloister in 2018, Minimalist exhibition at National Gallery Singapore in 2018, the main exhibition VIVA ARTE VIVA of the 57th Venice Biennale 2017, The 1st Kiev Biennale of Contemporary Arts, 14th international Sculpture Biennale of Carrara, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Vancouver Biennale 2009-2011, The 3rd Nanjing Triennial, 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, The 1st Singapore Biennale, The 6th Shanghai Biennale, Busan Biennale (South Korea), The 50th Biennale di Venezia China Pavilion and exhibitions held by institutions including Tate Modern (London, UK), Center Pompidou (France), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, USA), ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (ARoS, Denmark, Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan), Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK), UCCA(Beijing), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), Kunstmuseum Bern (Switzerland), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Shanghai Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, MoCA Shanghai, OCT Art and Design Gallery (Shenzhen), StaalicheKunstsammlungen Dresden (Germany), Shenzhen Art Museum (China), Guang Dong Art Museumthe Guangdong Museum of Art (China), the National Art Museum of China (Beijing, China), Groninger Museum (The Netherlands), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Austria), Cobra Museum of Modern Art (The Netherlands), Kunst Der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl (Austria), Hamburg Art Center (Germany), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin, Ireland), and the Marseilles Museum of Contemporary Art (France), etcamong others,.

Liu Jianhua’s works have been collected by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, USA), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), MOMA (New York, USA), Tate Modern (London, UK), Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, USA), USC Pacific Asia Museum (Los Angeles, USA), White Rabbit Gallery (Sydney, Australia), Dior Paris Headquarters, LVMH Art Foundation, Salvatore Ferragamo Museum (Florence, Italy), K11 Art Foundation, Bergen Art Museum (Norway), M+ Sigg Collection (Hong Kong, China), YUZ Foundation, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shanghai, Towada Art Center (Japan), Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), The Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), Shanghai World Expo National Organizing Committee, Shanghai Lujiazui World Financial Center, Santander Bank Art Center (Spain), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Shenzhen Art Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, Queensland Art Gallery (Australia), Hara Museum (Japan), China Club (Hong Kong, China), He Xiangning Art Musem (Shenzhen), etc., and by a range of private collections.

Liu Jianhua is also a member of an the important art group Polit-Sheer-Form Office (PSFO), based in China. PSFO was founded by Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Song Dong, Liu Jianhua, and Leng Lin in July 2005.

Awards

2019 Cadillac New Weekly Awards 2019 - Artist of the Year

2014 Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2014: Trace

2013 7th AAC Art China Prize Sculpture Artist of the Year

2010 Martell Artist of the Year

2010 2009 China Public Artwork of the Year: Magnet

2005 Montpelier Biennale Prize for China Contemporary Art: Dream

2004 1st China Contemporary Art Literature Prize, Wuhan: The Painted Sculpture Series - Merriment