Filmmaker Sophie Fiennes secures an intimate and charming exploration of the creative processes behind Liu Xiaodong’s figurative work in this excerpt from her 40-minute study of the pioneering artist. A keen documentarian and former actor, Liu, who is married to fellow painter Yu Hong, took up a six-week artist residency at two pubs—including The Perseverance, which features in today’s extract—and a Middle Eastern restaurant in London’s Marylebone, creating eight large-scale acrylic paintings of neighborhood sitters of Polish, French, West Indian and Arab descent. “Facing the realities of life is my favorite way to paint. I would set up my canvas and paint what I witnessed,” says Liu, who graduated from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts after winning a scholarship, forging a radical path within China’s contemporary art scene during the 1990s. Having documented Slavoj Žižek, Grace Jones and Michael Clark, Fiennes followed Liu as he photographed and took notes of his cross-cultural encounters, which marks the artist’s inaugural UK exhibition at London’s Lisson Gallery. 

Liu Xiaodong: Half Street runs September 27 through November 2 at the Lisson Gallery.