Liu Kang (b. 1911, Fujian, China-d. 2004, Singapore) was one of the earliest pioneers of the Nanyang art style and a founding father of modern Singaporean art. Liu spent his formative years as an artist studying in Shanghai and Paris. As a student at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, Liu was particularly attracted to the modernist aesthetics of Post-Impressionism and Fauvism in the works of Matisse and Cézanne, and sought to incorporate elements of their styles into his own work. Liu’s style epitomises the synthesis of elements from both Asian and Western art traditions that is a hallmark of the Nanyang art style. As with the other Nanyang artists, Liu Kang's formative role in the development of the Nanyang style came about when he began to assimilate and paint local subjects in the Southeast Asian region. His most significant exhibition prior to his passing was held in China in 2000, after having postponed it for more than a decade due to the Tiananmen incident in 1989.