Liu Ye investigates the intersections of history and image-making with a distinct and timeless visual vocabulary. His carefully balanced and lushly rendered artworks draw from the diverse aesthetic and cultural sources of his childhood and early European education. These paintings capture the likenesses and legacies of authors like Vladimir Nabokov, Hans Christian Andersen, and William Shakespeare; twentieth-century Chinese cultural icons, such as actress Ruan Lingyu and writer Eileen Chang; and modernist painters, architects, and designers from the Bauhaus to Balthus. By skillfully employing these various points of reference, Liu has created a body of work rich in historical quotations yet singularly unique.