This folder contains photo documentation that covers the artist’s major works from different stages, including selected ink paintings that Liu created from 1980 to 1991, the various performance projects he realised during the 1990s, and a series of conceptual photography projects Liu has conducted since the mid-1990s. The collection also comprises a small amount of documentation of contemporary art exhibitions in Beijing and abroad, as well as part of Liu’s working photos.

Liu Xinhua was born in 1956 in Hubei Province. After working in a factory for several years, Liu enrolled in Northwest Normal University, where he studied traditional Chinese painting from 1978 to 1982. In 1984, he staged his first solo exhibition at the Gansu Provincial Museum, featuring his ink paintings. In 1986, he started working at the Communist Youth League Committee of Gansu Province. In 1987, he was in charge of organising an art event with the title Performative Painting Show by A Hundred Artists, but the event was terminated by a group of participating artists in a rebellious act, later remembered as Rolling on Canvas. After the event, Liu resigned from the position and has worked as an independent artist since. He started to explore more experimental art forms, and participated in self-organised art events in Lanzhou, including the CCLL Art Show (1992) and Funeral (1992–93). Liu actively engaged in performance art after moving to Beijing in the mid-1990s. In 1997, he participated in Another Long March: Chinese Conceptual and Installation Art in the Nineties in Breda, the Netherlands. Since the mid-1990s, Liu has been working with conceptual photography. In 2007, he presented photography installation in his solo exhibition Implemental Photography at DDM Warehouse, Shanghai.