CHEN LIANG

Chen Liang currently lives and works in Hangzhou and Beijing. 

As a young child, he studied calligraphy and idol painting with the temple masters, and as an adult he studied inorganic non-metallic materials engineering at Shanxi University of Science and Technology, and later studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the School of Experimental Art, where he received his MA. Since becoming a professional artist in 2012, his work and research have been based on fieldwork on local knowledge, ancient rituals, the origins of writing and the tradition of human writing, and has always moved towards a state of uncovering hidden histories and writing universals. Inspired by folk rituals, mysticism and evergreen philosophy, he often thinks about how to reconstruct the fragmented and mixed-up folk ideas in the form of writing. This has led him to work in various ways including iconographic and documentary collecting, publishing, fieldwork, documentary, writing, poetry, theatre, calligraphy and painting, building his complex poetic vision. He is also passionate about theoretical research, folk subcultures, artistic vernacular construction, and local legends and beliefs, and founded the Ceremonial Popular Theatre (CPT) in 2020. His work is obsessed with uncovering, rediscovering and interpreting traces and voices that were once lost, unheard and buried.