Hongrui Liu (b. 2000) is a painter based in London. Born in Shenzhen and raised in Hong Kong, he studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins before completing postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Art and The Courtauld Institute of Art.
His practice considers painting as a relational space: a space in which differences can be held, suspended, and made visible.
Central to Liu's practice is an interest in the invisible forces produced through encounters between people, places, and events. These forces participate in shaping subjectivity and collective conditions but is otherwise unseen.
Working from traces, memories, and ‘artifacts’ from life, Liu uses painting to draw out these otherwise invisible relations. Through the process of visual translation and material strategies of layering, accumulation, and erasure, they are condensed into colour, form, atmosphere, and spatial tension. Within the image, these relationships continue to live on in altered forms.
This understanding of relation also informs Liu's conception of difference. Rather than treating difference as something fixed between already distinct individuals or cultures, he approaches it as something that continually emerges and transforms through conditions and interactions.
Painting becomes a space in which these differences and relations can coexist without being resolved, opening possibilities for new ways of understanding and inhabiting the world. Growing up across different cultural and geographical environments, Liu's interest in difference emerged through personal experiences of mobility, cultural transition, and belonging, it has since expanded towards questions of how difference shapes perception, relation, and the ways in which we inhabit the world.
His practice considers painting as a relational space: a space in which differences can be held, suspended, and made visible.
Central to Liu's practice is an interest in the invisible forces produced through encounters between people, places, and events. These forces participate in shaping subjectivity and collective conditions but is otherwise unseen.
Working from traces, memories, and ‘artifacts’ from life, Liu uses painting to draw out these otherwise invisible relations. Through the process of visual translation and material strategies of layering, accumulation, and erasure, they are condensed into colour, form, atmosphere, and spatial tension. Within the image, these relationships continue to live on in altered forms.
This understanding of relation also informs Liu's conception of difference. Rather than treating difference as something fixed between already distinct individuals or cultures, he approaches it as something that continually emerges and transforms through conditions and interactions.
Painting becomes a space in which these differences and relations can coexist without being resolved, opening possibilities for new ways of understanding and inhabiting the world. Growing up across different cultural and geographical environments, Liu's interest in difference emerged through personal experiences of mobility, cultural transition, and belonging, it has since expanded towards questions of how difference shapes perception, relation, and the ways in which we inhabit the world.
His first Solo Exhibition “In Drift” was presented in Hive Becoming, Hive Centre for Contemporary Arts, Shanghai in 2026. His works are held in collections such as X Museum and the White Rabbit Collection.
group exhibitions:
spndrft, Artsect Gallery, London, UK. 2021
I Spoke to Them, Safehouse 1, London, UK. 2021
International Curators Forum, London, UK. 2022
Ephmeral Radicals, Greatorex Street, London, UK. 2024
Hyper-Urban, Mall Galleries, London, UK. 2025
Young Wave: Hive Becoming, Hive Centre for Contemporary Arts, Beijing , China, 2026
Royal Society of Arts, London, UK. 2026
Swanfall Art Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK. 2026
Solo Exhibitions:
In Drift, Hive Centre For Contemporary Arts, Hive Becoming, Shanghai, China, 2026
Institutional Collections:
X Museum, Beijing, China
White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia
spndrft, Artsect Gallery, London, UK. 2021
I Spoke to Them, Safehouse 1, London, UK. 2021
International Curators Forum, London, UK. 2022
Ephmeral Radicals, Greatorex Street, London, UK. 2024
Hyper-Urban, Mall Galleries, London, UK. 2025
Young Wave: Hive Becoming, Hive Centre for Contemporary Arts, Beijing , China, 2026
Royal Society of Arts, London, UK. 2026
Swanfall Art Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK. 2026
Solo Exhibitions:
In Drift, Hive Centre For Contemporary Arts, Hive Becoming, Shanghai, China, 2026
Institutional Collections:
X Museum, Beijing, China
White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia