In exploring the truth Liu Wei takes on the basic subjects of human life- sex, flowers, landscapes and primal human nature. In the 1999 works No Smoking (Lot 1386) and No Smoking Series- A Good Flower(Lot 1212), the three naked figures and the wildly blooming red flower evoke a similar sensuality and Liu's frank projection of his innate feelings towards the wildness and perhaps the anxiety a smoker experiences when restrained from smoking. The inner struggle to want to do so is enhanced by the rapid and sprawling brushstrokes. In use of a flower and a 'nude, additionally emphasizes Liu's acknowledgement of the cyclical life and death nature of both humans and plantation, and its fragility, conveyed through the use of thin and delicate brushstrokes used to depict the floating cross and bone.

The depiction of figures and landscapes together in Flowers (Lot 1211) is only one of two in Liu Wei's oeuvre, and in its album form pays homage to the classical practices of Chinese landscape albums. This deliberate return to classical painting demonstrates his embrace of the Chinese philosophy that nature and humans should live in harmony with one another. As Liu Wei stated: "People, animals, landscapes are all the same; they all have a soul; that's why I melt them together in my paintings" (Mahjong, 2005, p. 214). Using similar alternating brash and dainty brushwork in depicting the landscape and figures, Liu Wei purposefully blurs the boundaries between the two forms in emphasis of their spiritual equality. In few instances over the course of the twenty-six leaves does Liu Wei fill his figures in colour and when doing so draws attention to their breasts, ripe fruits and phalluses accompanied by inscriptions such as "This is a flower" highlighting the already evident sexual connotations. The figures, appearing one by one or in pairs and mingling within the natural scenery draws associations with Adam and Eve and their fate in the mortal world determined by the consumption of the forbidden fruit. His representation of the natural world is filled with fantastical elements enforced by the writings, allowing the viewer to formulate his or her own interpretation of the words to the visuals provided by the artist.

Alternatively Landscape (Lot 1210) and The Trees (Lot 1213) in its pure scenic representation, draws attention to the stylistic techniques of Liu Wei. At once the atmospheric landscape is reminiscent of Sung dynasty ink paintings for its delicate renderings, seen sprouting from throughout Landscape like wild weeds. In The Trees the watercolours provide a diversified texture to the oil paints. Rather than tentacle like flares of soft blues and yellows, Liu Wei makes use of diluted saturated colors in small patches to distort the viewer, using his technique to divert the viewer to consider how Liu Wei conveys his mood through the texture of the trees. On the left, the viewer approaches the lush trees with ease, taking in the sun and clear skies yet when confronted with the fiery tree rising above the burnt remnants of its neighours, recoils. The duality of the two works perhaps echoes the at once spiritual and provocative character of the artist.

Liu Wei, an artist associated with the Cynical Realist painters with Mao Xuhui, Fang Lijun and others, heavily disciplined academic training and their vast technical skills not to the depiction of grand historical or didactic themes, but to the more ephemeral and experiential aspects of contemporary life. Their approach to depicting these taken-for-granted subjects contributed to one of the most radical breaks with tradition in Chinese art history. The uniting roguish impulse of Liu's generation led these artists to seek to reveal the truth of situations beneath polite surfaces and previously unassailable subjects.