Hung Liu: Drifters

Gallery Walk July 8th, 5-8pm  • Artist Chat July 9th, 10am

Hung Liu's paintings and prints often make use of anonymous Chinese historical photographs, particularly those of women, children, refugees, and soldiers as subject matter. Liu’s paintings - often large, drippy, and washed with layers of linseed oil - can be seen as critiques of the rigid academicism of the Chinese Socialist Realist style in which she was trained, as well as metaphors for the loss of historical memory. One of the first Chinese artists to study in the U.S., Liu’s works represent the ongoing tension between emigration and immigration.

The recent paintings of dandelions are rendered from close-up photographs taken by the artist at various parks and monuments across the United States. The dandelions, fragile in nature, and blown and tattered by the lightest breeze, mimic how images, and personal histories, too, can be scattered by time and the winds of consciousness. 

Liu has received numerous awards, including two painting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and her work is represented in the permanent collections of major museums and private collections throughout the United States and Asia.