Liu Jiutong

Liu Jiutong was born in 1977 in Suide, a county in Shaanxi province, China. Sources differ on the spelling of the province, rendering it as both Shaanxi and Shanxi, which appears to be a transliteration inconsistency rather than evidence of two different birthplaces. He graduated from the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 2000 and has been based in Shanghai since 2004, where gallery materials describe him as a working professional painter. In Western name order he is sometimes referred to as Jiutong Liu, though Chinese family-name-first order, Liu Jiutong, is the form used consistently across gallery and auction sources.

His paintings are predominantly abstract or semi-abstract landscapes, along with city and garden scenes, and are described by his representing gallery as combining Western painting materials and technique with an Oriental pictorial sensibility, marked by subtle color shifts and brushwork that moves between smooth and slashing gestures. Gallery sources credit him with solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Venice, and Singapore, and with participation in international art fairs in Shanghai, Taipei, and Hong Kong, though specific venues and years for these are not documented in available sources. His painting Distant Traveller was reported as a nominee, not a winner, for the Arte Laguna Prize in Venice, and other works were shown in exhibitions described only as an international contemporary art exhibition in Paris and a ninth contemporary art exhibition in Milan; exact years for these are not confirmed. His Black and White series was reportedly featured in a group presentation titled Contemporary Artists Workshop and selected for publication in an Art China special edition tied to the Beijing Olympics.

Independent, named critical commentary on Liu Jiutong in major art publications was not located for this profile. The available characterizations of his work, describing a fusion of Western materials with a Chinese landscape sensibility and a style that moves between smooth and slashing brushwork, come from the galleries and auction house that handle his paintings rather than from independent critics or academic sources. This does not mean broader critical attention does not exist, particularly in Chinese-language sources, only that it was not located in the research for this profile.

Liu Jiutong's paintings, including works titled Inspirations of the Land, Tower in the Mists, and May the Moon Watch Over You, have reportedly been consigned to sales at Sotheby's, Christie's, China Guardian, and Poly, according to his representing gallery. The most fully documented result is a 2 June 2013 sale at Poly International Auction in Beijing, where a painting titled Snow Scene in Shanghai, Wandering Along the Long Path, sold for RMB 805,000, about USD 120,750. A 2011 oil painting, Watching the Clouds Gather, appeared in a December 2024 Asian art sale at Clars Auction Gallery in California. A dealer representing his work, Blue Hill Fine Arts, describes his paintings as having sold at auction for prices well over USD 100,000 and cites an unspecified Sotheby's analysis suggesting rising values; promotional material also claims a reported USD 280,000 sale in 2022 and a HKD 1.3 million personal record in 2013, but neither claim could be independently verified with a named lot or primary sale record, so this profile does not assert an all-time auction record.

Liu Jiutong's public record is considerably thinner than that of an artist with an established catalogue raisonne or a long institutional exhibition history. His exact birth date, a confirmed highest-ever auction price, and any museum collection holding his work are not confirmed in available sources. Collectors should treat gallery-sourced valuation claims, such as the assertion that his paintings sell for well over USD 100,000, as promotional statements pending independent verification through auction-house sale records. With a single confirmed current gallery, Nancy's Gallery in Shanghai, and no catalogue raisonne, provenance and authenticity for any work should be confirmed directly with the gallery or through the auction houses that have previously handled his paintings.