Liu Shuishi came of age during a period of political upheaval, finding independence through drawing at an early age. After briefly studying at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, where he engaged with both Chinese traditions and Western masters, he left to pursue his own path. A turn to philosophy in 2007 shifted his work from figuration to abstraction, influenced by thinkers from Socrates to Freud. His international breakthrough came in 2009 with exhibitions at the Salon du Carrousel du Louvre and Art en Capital in Paris, where he won a silver prize from the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Moving to Beijing in 2010, Liu expanded his global reputation; his painting Existence was acquired by Henry Kissinger in 2014, and in 2015 he presented a solo exhibition in the Syrian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.