C.N. Liew was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1975. A contemporary artist, Liew's ancestral origins are from Shenzhen, China. Liew is the first ethnic Chinese artist whose calligraphy works have been collected by the National Palace of Malaysia since the nation's independence in 1957. His works are also in the collection of the National Art Gallery in Malaysia, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Malaysia, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum in Taiwan and many private collections across Asia, Europe, and the United States. Liew was a student of the father of contemporary ink art – Liu Kuo-Sung – at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art. He was also the disciple of the great Zen master Bo Yuan, another famous painter and calligrapher; Professor Jao Tsung-I, a world-renowned versatile scholar and a master of sinology in China; artist Chu Teh-Chun and calligrapher Tan Swie Hian, members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France. Liew's creations imbue Zen and philosophical elements as well as a fusion of traditional and contemporary aesthetics. He works with a variety of mediums including ink, calligraphy, acrylic, watercolor, sculpture and has collaborated with other artists from different fields, incorporating his art in contemporary dance, musicals and fashion. In 2005, Liew's "Surrealligraphy" series won the "Special Award of the First Seoul International Calligraphy Biennial". In 2012, Liew became the first Southeast Asian artist to exhibit at Art HK, Fine Art Asia and Art Miami. In 2016, Yazhou Zhoukan (Asian Weekly) named him as the winner of the first edition of "World Outstanding Young Leaders Award".
