CAIRO, EGYPT – The Liu Shiming Art Foundation has successfully inaugurated the Liu Shiming Scholars Fund at The American University in Cairo (AUC) during a ceremony held at the university on February 26, 2023.

Through the Liu Shiming Scholars Fund, the foundation will support in perpetuity one undergraduate Egyptian student who majors in visual arts, graphic design or cultural studies. The student selected will be in good academic standing and will have demonstrated both financial need and academic merit. The relationship with AUC is part of a larger network of programs established with universities across the Middle East, created as an extension of Liu Shiming’s passion for cultivating and growing a global arts discourse that recognizes our common humanity.

During the inauguration ceremony, the Liu Shiming Art Foundation gifted one of Liu Shiming’s sculptures to the school as a physical symbol of the new relationship. The piece, a bronze sculpture entitled “Silk Road,” depicts the fusion of a camel and a Buddha, and has been specially reproduced by the foundation at nearly four times its original size for the AUC.

Inspired by the Silk Road, the network of trade routes which played a key role in facilitating economic and cultural exchange between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the piece is Shiming’s homage to the route itself and the spiritual journey those who traveled the Silk Road undertook. “‘As Shiming wrote in his diaries, “Silk Road” is about the inner journey of embarking into the unknown, and we hope the sculpture will inspire AUC students to contemplate their own life’s journeys on campus and beyond,” shared Liu Shiming Art Foundation board member Geoffrey M. Glick. The sculpture will be permanently exhibited at the university.

The establishment of the Liu Shiming Scholars Fund and the sculpture donation at AUC are part of the foundation’s ongoing efforts to support the next generation of creatives while keeping the legacy of Liu Shiming alive. The Liu Shiming Art Foundation looks forward to a fruitful and productive partnership with The American University in Cairo.

-Ends-

About The Liu Shiming Art Foundation

The Liu Shiming Art Foundation was founded in 2021 to preserve the works of acclaimed Chinese artist Liu Shiming, as well as for the advancement of the global discourse surrounding the arts, history and culture. The fund aims to support art students and emerging artists by encouraging the creation of all forms of art and multicultural study. The Foundation goals are to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of Asian art forms and to contextualize them within a global purview. Engaging students and artists to conceptualize the creative process by focusing on a multicultural East and West perspective should be fundamental to the human experience. The foundation aims to create an engaged platform that collectively support the creation of arts, the study of art history and culture. It also shares aesthetic meanings, inclusiveness, and humanities of the art.

About Liu Shiming:

Liu Shiming (1926-2010) was a revered Chinese sculptor, whose works have made a distinct impact on the course of modern Chinese sculpture art. Born in 1926, Shiming attended the Central Academy of Fine. As early as 1950, Shiming received international recognition for his work Measuring Land, and thereafter, Shiming continued to make large-scale and publicly displayed sculptures. In the 1960s, Shiming resided in the countryside of Henan and Hebei provinces, where he gained a unique perspective on the working class and rural life. His time outside of the city, and closely handling folk art works in local museums, inspired Shiming to focus on everyday scenes in his works, becoming a common theme of Shiming sculptures. Today, Shiming is recognized for his ability to beautifully capture the most mundane scenes, as well as his aptitude for fusing folk traditions with modern sensibilities.

​Liu Shiming works have been displayed in prominent galleries and spaces across the globe, including exhibitions in Beijing, Washington D.C., and most notably a special exhibition in the main atrium of the Oculus in New York City. In 2018, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing founded the Liu Shiming Sculpture Museum, dedicated to researching and investigating Liu’s artworks and their historical significance.

MEDIA CONTACT
LIU SHIMING ART FOUNDATION – LINDA LIANG
LINDA@LSMARTFUND.ORG