Ma Liuming | the artist

Ma Liuming began making his nude performance pieces in Beijing in the early 1990’s, usually in front of a small circle of friends…

Prague biennale.
From 1993 to 1996 I employed a more narrative and symbolic style in my performances…

At the beginning of the 1990s, there was still no performance art in China. When Ma Liuming in 1993 masturbated in an art space, he could not have been referring to Western artists. Phenomena like American body art or Viennese Actonism are unknown here. However, in contrast to these artists, Ma Liuming does not want to attack the state or the hypocrisy of his countrymen. His enemy is himself. Imprisoned in a body with a female face and male genitals, he first needs to clarify his own role. Thus, in 1994, made up with lipstick, powdered cheeks and a nakes body, he cooked a tomato, a picture of a tomato, a watch, and an earring, and then buried the mixture in the ground. For this, the police imprisoned him for two months for«pornographic activities.»

"Fen-Ma Liuming in Munich"

As an exceptionally gifted performance artist, sculptor and oil painter, Ma Liuming’s works offer contradictions and challenges to the expectations and assumptions of contemporary audiences…