Ma Liuming was a pioneer of performance art. He is known most of all for his exploration of the power and poetry of public nudity in China, where such behaviour was strictly forbidden.
Ma Liuming was born in 1969 in Huangshi, China. Ma is known for his confrontational performances that involve crossdressing, nudity, and the social restrictions surrounding gender identity. His alter ego, Fen-Ma Liuming, which he assumed in 1993, is an androgynous figure who emphasizes the contrast between feminine beauty and a man’s body.
China, Ma studied oil painting at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts before moving to the East Village artist colony on the outskirts of Beijing. The artist’s nude performances during the early 1990s eventually led to his arrest. His Fen-Ma Liuming Walks the Great Wall of 1998, furthered his stance through the act of walking naked along the revered national relic, raising issues of tradition, cultural taboos, and political boundaries.
The artist currently lives and works in Beijing, China. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, and the Walther Collection in Neu-Ulm, Germany, among others.