Liu was born in 1963 in the small industrial town of Jincheng, a pulp and paper-producing center in Liaoning province. At age 17 he moved to Beijing to study art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. (中央美术学院) He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in oil painting in 1988, and a Master of Fine Art in oil painting in 1995, both from CAFA. In 1998–99 he continued his studies overseas at the Academy of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain.