Liu Wei stands among his work Love It, Bite It in his solo show Color in Beijing, where the exhibition rooms are filled with large installations. Photo provided to China Daily

Gao Shiming, a professor with the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art, where Liu studied, says the exhibits speak to Liu's observations of the community surrounding his studio.

"It is like a divide between the city and the countryside. Local residents do not live an industrial life, or a globalized one. They make almost everything themselves, like an artist does his work. Liu collected their daily waste to produce his works.

"He used the magic of art to piece these objects back together, in a new order he reconstructed."

Recognized as a success story among the post-1970 generation of Chinese artists, Liu has been commended for his breakthroughs despite the shadows of "cynical realism" and "political pop" from the previous generations on many of his peers.

"Liu and other contemporary artists have found quite a big possibility of expression for Chinese art. They have opened a door. To what, people are not yet quite sure. But it's only a start," says Pi Li, senior curator at Hong Kong's M+ contemporary art museum.

If you go

10 am-7 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, through April 17. UCCA, 798 Art District, 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang district. 010-5780-0200.

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