Hung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She grew up in

Beijing during the time of communist force, Mao Tse-tung, the

Cultural Revolution, Tieneman Square. After graduating from high

school in 1968, she was sent to the countryside where she worked

with peasants seven days a week in the rice and wheat fields, over a

four-year period

During this time she photographed and drew portraits of local

farmers and their families. In 1972 schools in China began to reopen

and Liu entered the Revolutionary Entertainment Department of

Beijing’s Teachers College to study art and education. She graduated

in 1975 and began teaching art at the Jing Shan School, an elite

Beijing school. She also began weekly art lessons for children on

television. Her program “How to Draw and Paint,” was renowned,

and lasted several years. In 1979 she was accepted to China’s two

leading art schools; she chose the Central Academy of Fine Arts

where she majored in mural painting.

In 1980 she applied to the visual arts graduate program at the

University of California at San Diego. She was accepted in 1981. Her

passport was delayed until 1984 when she departed Beijing and

began her graduate studies. In 1991 she returned to China for the

first time and discovered a treasure trove of turn of the century

photos of Chinese prostitutes, which became source material for her

paintings.

Hung Liu’s unusual biography infuses her work with a unique

richness; her paintings are steeped in Chinese culture,

contemporary and ancient. While she has a foot in both

cultures—China and the United States—her art is born of a

traditional Chinese art education. She fuses images from 7th

Century Tang tomb mural paintings of princes and princesses with

Western imagery such as St. Christopher carrying a baby across the

river, surrounded by her signature circles of color, an abstract

pattern which dances energetically across the surface.

Liu plumbs the depths of her life experience as well as all that

interests her about history, gender, identity, Chinese politics and

culture and combines this broad range with her intelligence into

compositions that pose questions while offering a moment to stop

and contemplate all that is bold and beautiful in her universe.

[Nancy Hoffman Gallery]

Hung Liu passed away on August 7, 2021.