Ma Liuming 马六明

From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki

Ma Liuming is a contemporary Chinese oil painter, sculptor, and performance artist living and working in Beijing. Born in Huangshi in the Hubei Province of China in 1969, Ma has performed and exhibited work internationally since his graduation from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. Two years later, he adopted the stage name “Fen-Ma Liuming” to distinguish himself from his performing second self.

Contents 1 Date & Place of Birth 2 Childhood & Family 3 Education & Development 4 Art 4.1 Performance Art 4.2 Visual Art 5 Emergence & Reception 6 Exhibitions 7 References

[edit] Date & Place of Birth

Ma was born in 1969 in Huangshi in the Hubei Province of southeast China.

[edit] Childhood & Family

Ma Liuming is very close to his older brother who encouraged Ma to become an artist and has always supported his art.

[edit] Education & Development

Ma Liuming began to study painting as a child in 1981 with his tutor Cai Erhe. Ten years later, he graduated from Hubei Academy of Fine arts where he received a formal education in oil painting. In 1989, the common avant-garde technique of “wrapping” emerged among the contemporary arts scene in China, intended as an expression of feeling restricted. Ma, a student at the time, adopted this trend and began wrapping his naked body with plastic wrap while modeling for student life drawing classes. He considers this practice as his first piece of performance art.

[edit] Art

[edit] Performance Art

For Ma, performance art has always had the advantage of being less complicated to produce than visual art, as it does not require many materials or studio space. In 1993, he was persuaded by his colleagues to apply women’s makeup to his face. Ma recalls, “I felt frightened, but also felt that I was ready for a bigger change. So I changed my clothes, and dressed in a girl’s long skirt. I had the idea to create art using only make-up and my body.”^[1] Despite the make up, which he believes is a symbol rather than a mask of his gender, he usually performs naked on stage, showing his true masculinity.

Ma, still painted in makeup, went on to experiment with the use of fish in his performances. In one performance, he cooked a living fish in a frying pan until it was burned to a crisp during a nude performance. Ma continued along this theme, but replaced the cruelty of the “Frying Fish,” with more polished themes. In 1996, Ma hung ten live fish from cords in a bathroom, and then proceeded to take a shower in the room with them. While the live fish flopped around in the air, a man adorned in feminine make up, washed himself in the shower. Dubbed “Fish Child,” this performance was meant to imply desire and death in a supernatural setting. Ma has since dropped his stage name “Fen-Ma,” but photographs of his performances are coveted and expensive items. Last March, a photograph of the artist walking on the Great Wall of China sold for over $33,000.

[edit] Visual Art

Ma never retired from painting, despite his primary role as a performance artist. In his paintings, Ma illustrates himself as an infant in a recreation of his birth. He often includes the Great Wall or colorful backgrounds in his canvases. He has also created several sculptures of his infant self with a big head and fat tiny hands. In his most recent series of paintings, Ma has chosen a new subject. His works mostly consist of contoured  human beings set against black backgrounds.  

[edit] Emergence & Reception

In 1993, Ma quit his job and moved to the Bejing artist colony, The East Village, which was filled with other poor youth living out their creative aspirations. Though the living conditions in the East Village were rough, Ma fell impassioned with contemporary art. One year into his new life, Gilbert and George, an openly gay British artistic duo, inspired Ma to turn to performance art as his main genre of artistic expression. Ma remembers, “that was the first time a big name in the international art community came to visit the East Village.”^[2]  He prepared a special performance for the two artists for the event of their arrival. Set to Pink Floyd music from the soundtrack to film, “The Wall,” Ma climbed onto a table and held a liquid sac with a raised arm. He then punctured the bag, soaking the artist in red dye. The wordless performance shocked the crowd with its honest expression of rebellion but was a mega-success.

[edit] Exhibitions

Ma Liuming has exhibited his work in China since his move to Beijing in 1993. Since then, he has performed and shared his works internationally in countries ranging fromfrom Italy, to Austria, to Norway, to the United States. For Ma Liuming’s full CV, please click here.