Liu Bolin

Liu Bolin is an artist born in China's Shandong province. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995 and his Master of Fine Arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2001

HIDING IN COLOMBIA - MOCHILASIMAGE COURTESY OF SCREAM GALLERY AND LIU BOLIN

Artist Liu Bolin paints his body to merge with his background. Liu's first solo exhibition, The Heroic Apparition, is at the Scream gallery in London until 9 May This picture is entitled Hiding in Colombia - Mochilas © The artist, courtesy Scream

Chinese Artist Liu Bolin aka The Invisible Man had himself painted into an intricate graffiti mural at 5 Pointz yesterday. After touring a few graffiti sites, Liu selected a rich jungle scene by Meres and Zeso as the perfect backdrop for his unique disappearing act. It was a timely choice because 5 Pointz itself is in danger of disappearing. Legal walls are scarce in New York City and 5 Pointz has long been the place for national and international writers to paint.

LIU BOLIN HIDING IN NEW YORK NO. 8 - CEREAL

Hiding in New York No. 8 - Cereal, 2013

No doubt there have often been times when we've all endured some awkward or embarrassing situation in which we'd like to simply disappear. As a child my vivid imagination and I liked to pretend I could, in fact do just that (a feat even my hero, Superman, couldn't do). Star Trek once built an entire movie on the premise that a hijacked Klingon ship could use a Romulan cloaking device to make itself invisible while visiting Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. During their visit to the 20th century, Captain Kirk, Bones, Spock, and Scotty took it upon themselves to hijack a whale in order to save Earth (no kidding, that was the plot). More recently Harry Potter came by a similar "cloak" to cover himself in order to achieve the same aim. The Chinese artist Liu Bolin doesn't have to go to the movies to become invisible. He simply disappears into the background.