Liao Yibai

With caustic wit and a rebellious spirit, Liao Yibai produces bold, stainless steel sculptures, through which he examines historical and contemporary America and China (his homeland) and their fraught relationship. Having spent his early childhood in a clandestine weapons-production factory during the final years of the Cultural Revolution, Liao is keenly sensitive to the dangers and absurdities of politicians and political ideologies. “I use my artistic identity to laugh at the stupid politicians and hopefully the world will laugh with me,” he says. Liao provokes laughter through works like Rolls Phillipe Watch (large) (2010), an oversized, gleaming replica of a replica. In this work, Liao skewers the shared American and Chinese desire for cheap “luxury” goods, wryly positing that perhaps rampant consumption is the path to mutual understanding.