Liu Bolin was born in 1973 in Shandong, China. After graduating from the Shandong Academy of Fine Arts in 1995, he enrolled in Central Academy of Fine Arts and received his MFA in 1995. Known internationally as “The Invisible Man,” Liu Bolin sprang from a generation of artists struggling with the consequences of the Cultural Revolution and the rapid economic development in the decades after. Traversing mediums such as performance, photography, and social activism, Liu Bolin dissects the tense relationship between the individual and society by ‘disappearing’ into environments that are sites of intrigue, contention, and criticism.
His "Hiding in the City" series has been displayed in numerous museums and institutions across the globe. Inspired by his powerful visual messages, artists, institutions, and organizations such as The Louvre (Paris, France), Harper's Bazaar Magazine, JR, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jon Bon Jovi and Kenny Scharf have invited Liu Bolin to collaborate on creative projects. In 2013, Liu presented a TED talk in Long Beach, California. In 2015, Liu was selected by United Nations backed campaign The Global Goals to create an image that conveyed 17 goals – including ending poverty, encouraging sustainable development and fight inequality and injustice – where he hid himself within 193 flags of the world. In 2016 and 2017 he participated in collaborations with Annie Leibovitz and Moncler for their Spring/Summer 2017 and Fall/Winter 2018 Campaigns. In 2024 he was commissioned a work by LVMH to be auctioned to benefit Hôpital Robert–Debré to help fight sickle cell anemia.
Liu Bolin’s recent institutional solo exhibitions include Hiding In Florence, Sala d'Arme of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (2023); (In)visible - the Art of Liu Bolin, Deodato Arte, Lugano, Switzerland (2023); Liu Bolin: Visible/Invisible, Museo delle Culture, Milan (2019); Liu Bolin/Camouflage - Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia (2019); Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man, The Gaviria Palace, Madrid, Spain (2019); Liu Bolin: Continuous Refle(a)ction, Riverside Art Museum, Beijing (2019); The Bigger Picture - Liu Bolin, Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Almere, The Netherlands (2019); Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man, The Gaviria Palace, Madrid, Spain (2019); Liu Bolin: The Invisible Man, Erarta Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia (2018); Liu Bolin: The Theatre of Appearances, Musée de L'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland (2018); Liu Bolin: L'homme caméléon, Le DIDAM, Bayonne, France (2018); Liu Bolin: Ghost Stories, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2017); Liu Bolin: Migrants, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Ramacca, Catania, Italy (2017); Liu Bolin Performance Show, K11 Museum, Shanghai (2017).
Liu Bolin’s work has been featured in renowned institutions worldwide including Saudi Arabia Museum Of Contemporary Art At Jax (2024); Diriyah, Saudi ArabiaBeing Art Museum, Shanghai (2024); The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia (2024); Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York (2023); Letters from Overseas: Zooming into the De Molina’s Collection, Coral Gables Museum, Florida (2023); The Wild Theatre, Arton Art Centre, Shenzhen, China (2023); i know you are, but what am i? (De)Framing Identity and the Body, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, Utah (2022); Tumultes, Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier, Orleans, France (2022); SENSORAMA, Museo d'Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy (2022); The Supermarket of Images, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2021); The Photography Is Not What's Important, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2021); Nourrir le corps nourrit l’esprit, Centre D'art Contemporain de Meymac, Meymac, France (2021); Super Fusion - 2021 Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu, China (2021); When Speed Become Form - Live in Your Screen, Wind H Art Center, Beijing (2020); Alien Nations, Coral Gables Museum in online collaboration with Lehman College Art Gallery, Florida (2020); The World to Come: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida Gainesville, Florida [itinerary: University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago]; Time Frames: Contemporary East Asian Photography, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland (2019); I eat, therefore I am, Musée de L'Homme, Paris (2019); Humans, Bernard Magrez Cultural Institute, Bordeaux, France (2019); Art Eats Art, Musée Regards de Provence, Marseille, France (2019); Colors of Contemporary China: A Passion of Collectors, Saint-Remi Museum, Reims, France (2019); Chinese Whispers: Recent Art from the Sigg Collection, MAK Contemporary Art Collection, Vienna, Austria (2019); The Bigger Picture, Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland, Almere, The Netherlands (2019); Urban Art Biennale 2019, The World Cultural Heritage Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Germany (2019); The Gaze of History - Contemporary Chinese Art Revisited, Jupiter Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China (2019); 180 Years of Photography in China, The Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, Ningxia, China (2019); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, Shenzhen OCT Contemporary Art, Shenzhen, China (2018); Hybridizations: The Ghost of Painting, Whitebox Art Center, Beijing (2018); Evidence: A New State of Art, Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, Italy (2018); Every Body Talks, Mattatoio Roma, Rome, Italy (2018); Forty Years of Sculpture, Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition, Shenzhen, China (2017); Long Island Collects: New Photography, Nassau County Museum of Art, New York (2017); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography (1976-2017), Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2017); Portrait(s) Festival 2017, Ville de Vichy, Vichy, France (2017); The First Shandong Youth Contemporary Art Documents Exhibition, JiaJian Art Museum, Jinan, China (2017); Biennale Archipelago Mediterranean, Cultural Shipyards alla Zisa-Palermo Dusseldorf Pavilion, Palermo, Italy (2017).
Liu Bolin has performed at institutions and venues including Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2019), Art Basel Miami (2018), and Centre Pompidou (2017), among many others. His works are in major collections such as the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; M+ Museum Uli Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; Fondation Ariane de Rothschild, Madrid, Spain; Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; Fist Art Foundation, Dorado, Puerto Rico; the Fidelity Corporate Art Collection, Boston, MA; The Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK; Museo Enzo Ferrari, Modena, Italy and; DSL Collection, Paris, France.
Liu Bolin currently lives and works in Beijing.