Liu Shuishi (b. 1962, China) is a contemporary painter and installation artist based in New York. Liu entered the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in 1987. However, he felt at odds with the Academy’s classical training and left after two years to teach art classes. It was not until 2007 when he began reading about the self and consciousness through popular philosophers like Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant and Sigmund Freud, that Liu developed a taste for modern and contemporary art. Philosophy became the primary driving force behind Liu's artistic practice. His subject matter includes the process of thinking, the pursuit of absolute beauty, and concepts of self-reflection and self-awareness.