Born in Beijing in 1982, Dapeng Liu started to draw and paint from a very early age. Currently residing in Sydney, Dapeng became a full time artist in 2014, and working primarily with oil and water based mediums. On the path of his artistic exploration, through experiments in colour, representational and abstract forms, as well as different techniques of perspective, Dapeng interrogates and depicts the tension between old and new, East and West, as well as natural and manmade.

Dapeng studied visual communication in his Bachelor degree followed by an MA by research degree in art history from the University of Sydney, where the Federal Government awarded him an Australian Post Graduate Award (APA scholarship). Dapeng’s research examined both traditional Chinese art and culture as well as the modernisation of art in China. This experience in art history has enabled Dapeng, as an artist, to critically engage with his main subject of creation- mountainscapes and waterscapes, that subsequently led to his larger question -that of the relationship between nature and humankind.

A three-times Archibald Prize finalist (2022, 2021, 2014), Dapeng’s highly commended piece Portrait of Yin Cao on blue-and-green landscape was among the top six shortlisted finalists of Archibald Prize 2014. His most recent solo exhibitions are Dapeng Liu: Void, Western Sydney University (2022); Land Water Shapes, Art Atrium Sydney (2021) and Shan Shui Australis, Vermilion Art Sydney (2018). His works are held in private and public collections in Australia and internationally, including the University of Oxford China Centre; Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Nock Art Foundation; M Restaurant Group; The Kwok family collection; and Skye Niseko Hotel Hokkaido.