For Art Basel Hong Kong 2019, ESLITE GALLERY is pleased to present a booth dedicated to China's foremost contemporary artist LIU Xiaodong, featuring nearly 30 canvas works, watercolours, print series and works on paper made over the last decade. One highlight are the new canvas works that Liu painted specifically for this occasion. These works drew inspiration from the basic necessities of life as testimonial to the artist's fondness for life's simple blessings. Alongside the delightful paintings are Liu's larger works imbued with social implications from previous projects.

The new works are a painting series of vegetables, fruits and sustenance that pertain to our daily existence. The late Chinese poet Haizi's moving poem vowed, 'From tomorrow on, I will appreciate my food and greens; My house faces the vast ocean, where spring is warm and flowers bloom.' In resonance, Liu's works convey the same ideal of counting our blessings and reducing worldly wants to a bare minimum, because in doing so, life shall be free of tether.

Previous works from the Hometown Boy series that document landscapes and people in his hometown Jincheng; and others that reveal his observation of different places, such as a large-scale painting of wealthy Chinese ladies in Indonesia and watercolours that vividly captured the South African wildlife, will be shown alongside the new works. By bringing together works of varied subjects and forms, the core of Liu Xiaodong's art unfolds, from the essence of simple things then gradually expands to the rumination of social meanings.