Sun Liang initially established his reputation as one of the leading lights of the Generation of 85, a generation of artists acknowledged for kick-starting the Chinese contemporary art scene. He represented China when it first entered the Venice Biennale in 1993, and was included in the historically important China/Avant Garde Exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing,1989. He was recently given a retrospect at the Shanghai Fine Art Museum and was one of the stars of last year's 85 New Wave: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art, at Bejing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
Sun Liang's paintings engage with international contemporary art and with Chinese history and experience. Paintings of the 1980s combine Western and Chinese mythology, allegorical works of the later 1980s have specific Chinese roots yet echo the anguish of Bacon, Basquiat and Baselitz, and his more recent lyrical works have reasserted Chinese techniques as well as imagery.