HUNG LIU
IN THE NEWS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948. Growing up under the Maoist regime, she was initially trained in Socialist Realist style. Before coming to the US in 1984 to attend the University of California, San Diego, she graduated from the Central Academy in Beijing in mural painting. She resides in Oakland, California.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
July 2021 “The Golden Gate,” DeYoung Museum, Wilsey Court, San Francisco
August 2021-May 2022 “Portraits of Promised Lands,” the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
IMAGERY AND INSPIRATION
Known for paintings based on historical Chinese photographs, Hung Liu’s subjects have been prostitutes, refugees, laborers, soldiers, prisoners, among others. Liu transforms old photographs into new paintings. For the past five years Liu shifted her focus from Chinese to American subjects of the Dustbowl and the Depression, inspired by Dorothea Lange’s black and white photographs of the 30’s. Liu infuses these works of rich palette with radiant hope.