Hung Liu 刘虹
From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki
Born in Changchun, China, in 1948, Hung Liu is a Chinese-American contemporary artist living in Oakland, California.
Contents |
Birth & Place of Birth
Hung Liu was born on February 17, 1948 in Changchun, China.
Childhood & Family
Hung Liu grew up in Maoist China, singing The Internationale, the anthem of international socialism. Hung has said, “We once truly believed in Communism, in a socialist utopian dream, and in heroism.” Though she has replaced those beliefs with a new sense of humanism since her move to the United States, many fundamentals of the ideals from her thirty-six years in China remain with her.
Education & Development
Hung graduated from Beijing Teachers College with a BFA in Education in 1975. She later studied mural painting as a graduate student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, earning the equivalent of an MFA in 1981. Five years later, after moving to the United States in 1984, she graduated with a Masters in Visual arts from the University of California, San Diego.
Art
Hung Liu also paints images of the struggle in a “utopian” environment. She has developed her childhood views into what she describes as a “kind of modern humanism,” and now transforms historical photographs into paintings. Though she “was never interested in being a victim in an authoritarian world,” she admired the soldiers and heroes of her country. Here, too, her discussion about the role of women continues. When Hung was a child, she watched a film titled Daughters of China--a 1949 documentary depicting the heroism and struggle of eight female soldiers who sacrificed their lives saving the retreating Chinese army in 1938. The film shaped her image of women as leaders in the fight for a socialist utopia. Though this paradise never arrived, her belief in the strength and capabilities of women has remained with her to this day. Daughters of China influenced Hung so greatly that it has served as the basis for many of her recent paintings. Hung shies away from the rigid methodology of Socialist Realism—the style in which she trained—towards a more improvisational painting style.
Secondary Activities
Since 2001, Hung Liu has served as a professor of art at Mills College in Oakland, California, where she previously taught as an assistant professor, coming to the faculty in 1990. She has also served as an assistant professor of Art at the University of North Texas, an adjunct professor of Chinese Art History at the University of Texas, and a professor of Art at the Central Academy of Fine Art.
Awards & Honors
1990 Contemporary Art by Women of Color, Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, Texas. Artists' Award. Jurors: Lucy Lippard, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Yong Sun Min
1991 National Endowment for the Arts, Painting Fellowship
1992 S.E.C.A. Award, San Francisco, CA
1993 Eureka Fellowship, The Fleishhacher Foundation, San Francisco, CA
1996 San Francisco Women's Center Humanities Award, San Francisco, CA
1998 The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc. Painters Sculptors Grant, New York, NY 1999 Joan and Robert Danforth Distinguished Professorship in the Arts Endowed Chaier, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2000 Outstanding Alumna Award, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
2005 Commission for the new terminal at the Oakland Internation Airport (160 foot glass wall with etched imagery
Exhibitions
In 1978, Hung displayed her works at the “Portraiture Exhibition” at the Winter Palace Gallery in Beijing for her first group exhibition. Three years later, she debuted a permanent mural at the Foreign Students Dining Hall at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing--her first solo exhibition.
For Hung Liu’s full CV, please click here.
Gallery Affiliations
Hung Liu's work has been shown by galleries internationally, including Rena Bransten Gallery, Byron Cohen Gallery, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, and 10 Chancery Lane.
References
http://www.renabranstengallery.com/liu.html
http://byroncohengallery.com/Byron_Cohen_Gallery/Liu_Main.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hung_Liu
