Guangdong artist Liu Youju was awarded the prestigious Michelangelo International Prize recently, according to the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence.

Liu Youju (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

The Michelangelo International Prize is awarded to artists worldwide who have made important contributions to the art of painting, architecture and sculpture as well as art theory, according to Anna Balzani, chairman of the Italian Association of Contemporary Artists and honorary academic of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence. It is one of the most prestigious art awards presented in Florence and highly recognized by the academic world.

Liu Youju, China's famous calligrapher, avant-garde painter and founder of illusionist painting, was born in Jieyang, a city in eastern Guangdong in 1955. Liu has been engaged in illusionist painting for years, and is an expert at using colors and creating mysterious spaces, leaving a lot of room for the audience's imagination.

Liu Youju's work (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

Liu has held solo exhibitions at many world-class art venues, including the Decorative Arts Gallery of the Louvre Museum, the British Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, and the Centre Georges-Pompidou. Both the masters club of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and the Centre Georges-Pompidou have held seminars on Liu’s works. Three of his works have formed part of the permanent collection of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the British Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence respectively.

In July this year, Liu Youju was appointed as a lifelong honorary academic of the Academy of the Arts of Drawing, an academy of artists in Florence, Italy. The appointment ceremony was originally scheduled for July in Florence but was postponed due to the pandemic.

Liu Youju's work (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

Liu hopes that he can contribute to the art exchange between China and western countries via his works and encourage more Chinese artists to join the ranks of western peers in mainstream art circles.

Liu also pointed out that he is planning an exhibition at a renowned art gallery in the US next year, to further showcase Chinese art to the world.

Author | Monica

Editor | Jerry