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Liu Shiming Art Gallery
15 E 40th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10016
Open Monday to Saturday: 11am–5pm
New York, NY, August 13, 2025—Liu Shiming Art Foundation announced today that Maëlle Ebelle has been named the new gallery director and curator of the Liu Shiming Art Gallery in New York City. Ebelle most recently served as the Director of Ceysson & Bénétière’s New York and Luxembourg galleries, beginning her tenure with the Luxembourg location in 2017 and the New York location in 2023. At Ceysson & Bénétière, Ebelle worked on exhibitions with international artists such as Alina Bliumis, Adam Himebauch, Sandra Lieners, Rachael Tarravechia, Jean-Luc Verna, and those in the late 1960s French art collective Supports/Surfaces. Ebelle will join the gallery, which is in the Foundation’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, on September 2, 2025.
“I’m incredibly honored to join the Liu Shiming Art Foundation and to lead the Liu Shiming Art Gallery programming,” said Ebelle. “Liu Shiming’s vision of art as a bridge between communities and as a tool to celebrate the complexity of the human experience deeply resonates with me. I’m excited to build on his powerful legacy by curating exhibitions that not only showcase his remarkable work but also celebrate and challenge ideas of interconnectedness, cultural dialogue, and the evolving goals of our global society.”
In line with the international work she has executed throughout her career, Ebelle will program exhibitions that will help extend Chinese sculptor Liu Shiming’s mission of uplifting art that foregrounds common humanity and fosters a global arts discourse. This will take many forms, from directly pairing his work with individual artists from China, the US, and elsewhere to supporting diverse groups of emerging artists and curating thematic exhibitions that speak to the existential need for connection, compassion, and collective action.
Liu Shiming’s work significantly shaped modern Chinese sculpture. Born in 1926 in Tianjin, China, he honed his skills at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, where he was among the initial cohort of sculptors trained by the People’s Republic of China, a training that blended Chinese and French sensibilities. He continued to produce and exhibit his work within China until his passing in 2010.
Ebelle’s appointment follows the gallery’s summer exhibition People Everyday, which paired the works of Hank Willis Thomas and Liu Shiming to explore their common creative interests in the human form, the caregiving figure, and conceptions of community. Liu’s work has been exhibited in university galleries and museums across North America in recent years, with his European debut slated for 2026, which is the centennial of his birth. Part of Ebelle’s role as gallery director and curator in the next year will be to plan exhibitions to celebrate the centennial, honoring Liu’s work as well as artists who place a similar importance on highlighting everyday moments and the beauty of human experiences.
Puking Hui, executive director of the Liu Shiming Art Foundation, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Maëlle to the Foundation. Her impressive background, her love of artists, and her interests in both cultural specificity and cultural breadth make her an exceptional fit. She is a curator Liu Shiming would have admired, not only because of their shared interest in French artistic traditions but also because of the care with which she considers art from a human and personal perspective. We eagerly anticipate the innovative perspectives and vibrant exhibitions and programming she will bring to the gallery.”
About Maëlle Ebelle
Maëlle Ebelle is the inaugural gallery director and curator of The Liu Shiming Art Gallery. With over a decade of experience in the international art world, Ebelle is known for her deep commitment to fostering vibrant artistic communities and thoughtful collaboration with artists, collectors, and institutions. As Director of Ceysson & Bénétière’s New York and Luxembourg galleries, she helped to shape the gallery’s transatlantic vision while deepening its roots in the U.S. arts ecosystem. In 2024, she served as a jury member for NADA Miami. Ebelle holds two master’s degrees from Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France, one in Contemporary Art and one in Artistic Direction.
About The Liu Shiming Art Foundation
Established in 2021, the Liu Shiming Art Foundation supports contemporary art worldwide while elevating and preserving the art of renowned Chinese artist Liu Shiming (1926–2010). Based in New York, the Foundation curates contemporary art exhibitions and provides scholarships, grants, and exchange opportunities to cultivate and grow a global arts discourse that recognizes common humanity, as Liu Shiming did as a teacher, through his art and life. lsmartfund.org.
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