Hiding in the City

Have you seen these images of and by Chinese artist Liu Bolin?  They’re really quite extraordinary. In 2005, Liu Bolin was one of dozens of artists forced to move out of a commune to the north of Beijing when the government decided to dismantle the settlement to make way for redevelopment; Bolin painted himself into the scenery in protest.Liu stands still for more than five hours while his assistants paint him into the scenery. Nothing is photo-shopped into the picture. One false move and the image is ruined. He’s done these “paintings” in cities as varied as New York, Venice and Beijing. These and other images are at the Eli Klein Fine Art Gallery in New York until Wednesday, September 28th.