Liu Xiaokang
Mr. Liu Xiaokang has spent more than 30 years in creation work. He always plays an active role in different files and by now, he has made great achievements. For example, he has won more than 300 awards and honors.
Exhibition planning
Mr. Liu has joined to plan several large-scaled exhibitions, whose design greatly help with the creation work. In 2011, he participated into 2 large exhibitions in Asia --- Amaze of Nature and Zhizu. Amaze of Nature was held via Taipei World Design Expo 2011. Artworks made by 40 designers from Taiwan and other regions, as well as calligraphic artworks of Mr. Dong Yangzi were exhibited. About 240 posters were made and millions of audiences were attracted.
2012 is the design year of Hong Kong, for which Mr. Liu joined the planning of three large-scaled exhibitions, including Day Day Up Year-end Interaction Exhibition, Creative Ecology + Exhibition and Asia Color. Being invited by Mr. Rong Nianceng, Mr. Liu became the curator for Day Day Up Year-end Interaction. He invited 108 composers in different fields, under the theme of Day Day, and created 108 Day Day sculptures (50cm high). Creative Ecology + Exhibition studied how the internal elements and external elements have pushed the development of local creative design industry since 20th century. Besides, this exhibition also presented that how these elements develop the infrastructure of the creative industry, as well as how the enterprises and brands cooperate with each other to make the society develop in a sustainable way. This exhibition introduced the newest and typical artworks created by design masters and young designers. Asia Color helped to push forward the creative exchange and study on cultural comparison by the application of colors in different regions in Asia.
Public art
Mr. Liu has great passion and deep love in pure art making. His early artworks, like Start of Another End Point (1992) (sculpture champion of Xia Lihao Modern Art Competition 1992), reflected his own thoughts about life philosophy. Later, his artworks began to study the relationship between humans and the relationship between humans and other stuffs, like Information Box I & II & III (1992) (won Art Award of Urban Council, General Biography (1000) 8/19/2016(1994)(1998)), Pursue of Position I & II (won Sculpture Design Award of Urban Council, 1994). In 1995 and 1997, Mr. Liu was sponsored to have an art exchange in America and Venice. There, he made several key artworks. Being affected by design, Mr. Liu became good at expressing the concept and he took into account of the acceptance status of different groups. These years, Mr. Liu have been entrusted by different institutes to make public artworks, like Intelligent Information (entrusted by Hong Kong Housing Authority in 1999, located at Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong), Round (entrusted by Hong Kong Temporary Area Urban Council via Public Art Project 1999, which was made in 1999 and located at Qingyi Hong Kong), Jiu Cheng (entrusted by Hong Kong Heritage Museum via Public Art Design Invitation Competition in 2001, located at Hong Kong Heritage Museum), Light of Book (entrusted by Hong Kong Central Library via Hong Kong Central Library Art Device Design Competition in 2001), Link (entrusted by Hong Kong MTR via Metro Station Art Architecture Project in 2001), Fancy Horse (entrusted by Sun Hung Kai Properties in 2008) etc. All his artworks are simply-understood because the theme is quite clear. Besides, his artworks is full of his own personality and well combined with local features, which have become the benchmarks there. 。
Personal creation
Since 1990s, Mr. Liu has started to make creations by using different shapes of chairs, comparing the chairs into humans and discussing the problems in different angles. Mr. Liu uses the chair into his other artworks like public art, graphic design, furniture and sculpture. Gradually, chair has become a special feature of Mr. Liu’s artwork. After 2000, artworks with chair is included in his artwork series -- Chair Game series.
Chair Game includes several different series -- furniture series and sculpture series. For furniture series, there are Man-Woman Chair, Couple Chair, Calligraphy Chair and Animal Chair etc, which studied the relationship between men and women and the interaction between humans, as well as human’s love to calligraphy and human’s willing to have harmonious development with other species in the nature. For sculpture series, there are Chair Game II & IV, City, Agenda and Balance etc. Mr. Liu used different materials to make his artworks, cooperated with other teams to challenge other materials and processes, trying to enhance the production technology. Chair Game series was invited by different world exhibitions, including The 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition organized by University Of Hawaii Gallery (2003), Artists in The Neighborhood Scheme II (organized by Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department Art Promotion Office) Person ．Chair: Liu Xiaokang’s Artwork Exhibition (2003), Ink and Chair -- Jin Daijiang + General Biography (1000) 8/19/2016 Liu Xiaokang Art and Design Exhibition in DDD Gallery and Shizuoka University of Art and Culture (2003), Taiwan Something from Nothing -- Calligraphy │Symbol │ Space Exhibition (2009), Shanghai New Aesthetics of Handcraft -- China’s Modern Artists Nomination Exhibition (2010), Basel Art Exhibition (2013), The 5th Guangzhou International Design Biennale (2013) etc.
In 2005, Mr. Liu was invited by several galleries to curate theme exhibitions -- Chair Game Exhibition, including Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, Taipei Eslite Bookstore, Hong Kong Jing Yi Xuan Bookstore and Hong Kong Causeway Bay Time Square etc. In 2007m named as Chair Game II Liu Xiaokang Personal Artwork Exhibition, Mr. Liu exhibited a series of new artworks linking with the Chair Game. In 2011, being organized by Mr. Hang Jian (a curator), Mr. Liu and Mr. Zhu Xiaojie jointly started an exhibition at CAFA Gallery --- Chair Emotion, Chair Game, which became one of the satellite exhibitions of Beijing International Design Triennial. In Dec. 2015 and May 2016, Mr. Liu held his personal exhibition -- Liu Xiaokang Determined Design at Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Actually, Mr. Liu’s artworks are rather diversified, covering several fields like graphic design, packing design and brand strategy.
Graphic Design
Packing design
After becoming a professional designer, Mr. Liu designed packing for several brands, of which the bottle for distilled water of Watsons in 2002 was the most heart-touched. Apart from the view of aesthetics, the distilled water bottle was quite practical, which is well coordinated with general biography (1000) 8/19/2016 so that the users can take it easily. After being released to the market, the distilled water made a historical record in bottled water in Hong Kong, which also greatly helped Watsons to take more market shares. In 2004, the distilled water bottle was honored with Global Design Award of Bottled Water World. Actually, this award became Mr. Liu’s landmark of his design career. His other packing designs helped the brands improve their images, like Two Girls, Yao Yang Tea House, Hong Kong Wing Wah and Garden etc.
Brand strategy
Apart from design services, Mr. Liu also provides brand strategies for brands at different regions. Cases: Kawen, Jieyitang and Ordos etc. These years, Mr. Liu, together with Michel De Boer (a designer from Holland) and Chen Yuqiang (the associate professor from Art Department of Chinese University of Hong Kong), set up a new system “public creation”, which is dedicated for serving local brands. This system has been used by Qide Development Plan and Huarun City in Nanshan Shenzhen. Definitely, it will develop a new field for the design industry in Hong Kong.
Design promotion
Not only focusing on design creation, Mr. Liu plays other roles, like the member of Board of Directors of Hong Kong Design Center, secretary general of Hong Kong Design Association and deputy chairman of Asia Design Alliance. He is always devoting himself to pushing forward the development of design industry. Since 2002, he has worked together with Hong Kong Design Center to prepare the flagship activities “Design Operation Week”; in 2010 and 2011, he curated the Creative Ecology Exhibition, by which he introduced the typical artworks made by Hong Kong design industry. In 2014, being as the secretary general of Hong Kong Design Association, Mr. Liu, together with 39 design associations in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, curated the 1ST Shenzhen-Hongkong Design Biennale, where 8 exhibitions and 8 public activities related to graphic design, new media design, fashion design, interior design and industrial design were held. The Biennale was greatly supported by other fields and quite successful. In order to get the design more educational, Mr. Liu, being as the deputy chairman of Consultant Committee of Hong Kong Design Institute and member of Jockey Club and Social Innovation Design Institute Administration Commission of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Mr. Liu always does his best. In 2006, he and other members of Hong Kong Cultural Center jointly set up Hong Kong Lee Shau Kee School Of Creativity, which is used to cultivate creative talents for Hong Kong. Being as an artist, designer and industrial pusher, he was widely accepted by the whole society and he has won different honors, including Top 10 Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong (1997), Golden Ward of Hong Kong Designer Association (2005 and 2007), Top 10 Outstanding Designers (2005), Bronze Bauhinia Star (2006), Lifetime Achievement Award in Design Art of 3rd Exhibition of International Design & Art, China (2008), Year of Achievement Award issued by CAFA Design Research Institute (2010), University Fellow of General Biography (1000) 8/19/2016 issued by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2011), Best Asian Designer (2014), Most Powerful Asian Designer Award (2015) and iF Design Award (2016) of Korea Asia Designer Invitation Exhibition (216).
