Today we’d like to introduce you to Beili Liu.
Beili, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in a rural village in northeast China. The migrations across three stages of my life, from village to city, to the U.S., have deeply informed my practice. The simplicity and freedom, and the tactility and versatility of all things I lived with in the village are the basis for my love of materials and the hand-made. I share the nomadic experiences with all immigrants who inhabit multiple frames of social and cultural references at a time. These memories and experiences have defined an inquisitive and contemplative approach in my work. For the past two decades, I have developed a hybrid work form that merges sculpture, site-specific installation, public art and performance.
Has it been a smooth road?
I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about my current 1000 Prayer Masks Project. http://www.beililiu.com/prayer-mask
The 1000 Prayer Mask project infuses a new layer of purpose to the white prayer flags, and offers a sense of hope and protection for communities near and far. The 1000 Prayer Mask Project also helped me in so many ways through these challenging weeks. I believe that it is an artist’s responsibility to stay aware, respond, and to take action to do what we can in the face of adversity and challenge. Here is also a direct video link about the project: https://www.youtube.
THIRST is a site-specific installation featuring a 38-foot tall drought-killed tree anchored in the center of the Lady Bird Lake in Austin. THIRST memorializes the loss of the over 500 million trees that died in Texas droughts between 2011-2013, and acknowledges the devastating impact of climate change.
The ghostly white tree was accompanied by 14,000 white cotton flags, each printed with an iconic image of a drought-killed tree surround a 2.5 mile loop around the Lady Bird Lake. The Prayer Flags borrow from the physical form and cultural and spiritual reference of Tibetan prayer flags, which are often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas. They are used to bless the surrounding countryside, people and their lives.
The 1000 Prayer Mask project infuse a new layer of purpose to the white prayer flags, and offer a sense of hope and protection for communities near and far. The 1000 Prayer Mask Project also helped me in so many ways through these challenging weeks. Deep gratitude to my loving family, good friends and my communities near and far. I believe that it is an artist’s responsibility to stay aware, respond, and to take action to do what we can in the face of adversity and challenge. Here is also a driect video link about the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkTPepn-Z4M&feature=emb_logo
Please tell us about your work.
Beili Liu is a visual artist who has exhibited extensively in Asia, Europe and across the United States. She has held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Crow Museum of Asian Art, Dallas TX, Hå Gamle Prestegard, Norwegian National Art and Culture Center (2016, 2011), Hua Gallery, London, UK (2012), Galerie An Der Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2017, 2011), Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai (2009), at the Chinese Culture Foundation, San Francisco (2015, 2008). Liu’s work has been showcased in group exhibitions and performances at the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Detroit Institute of Arts, Asia Society Texas Center, Hangzhou Fiber Art Triennial, Zhijing Art Museum, China, Museum of Southeast Texas, Hamburg Art Week, Germany, 2011 Kaunas Biennale, Lithuania, among many others.
Beili Liu is a 2016 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant recipient. Liu has been designated the 2018 Texas State Artist in 3D medium by the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Commission on The Arts. Beili Liu’s work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts (Museum of Southeast Texas, 2014) and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant (Women and Their Work Gallery, 2013). Liu has been awarded artist residency fellowships from the Joan Mitchell Center, MASS MoCA, Facebook AIR, Fiskars AIR, Djerassi Foundation, and Fundación Valparaíso, Spain, among others.
Liu’s work has received critical reviews from publication including Art in America, Sacchi Review, UK, Helsinki Sanomat News, Finland, Morgenbladet, Norway, China Daily, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Hamburg Abendblatt, Germany, Vita (Life) Magazine, Italy, ArtSlant, The Huffington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Examiner and LA Confidential.
Born in Jilin, China, Beili Liu now lives and works in Austin, Texas. Liu received her MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and is a Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Professor of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I had the honor to mount my first solo exhibition in Dallas at the Crow Museum of Asian Art in January 2020, One and Another, which is the inaugural exhibition of the museum’s Texas Asian Women Artists Series. This multi-year exhibition series dedicated to making visible the work of emerging and established Texas-based contemporary Asian women artists. The artists presented in this program focus on contemporary issues both in Texas and abroad, giving voice to complex, humanized stories of identity, place, tradition and modernity. For One and Another exhibition, I created two site-responsive installations, Lure/Dallas and Each and Every/Dallas, in two of the Museum’s galleries. Together, the installations speak to distinctly different aspects of the theme of human connection. Through my practice, I make use of commonplace materials to unorthodox processes, extrapolating complex cultural narratives around the trauma associated with migration and diaspora. In my recent conversation with the Museum Senior Director Amy Lewis Hofland, I was excited to learn that the exhibition will be extended. I hope that the Dallas community will visit this wonderful museum and experience two installations when the museum reopens. https://www.facebook.com/CrowMuseum/videos/529870774320826/
Contact Info:
- Website: beililiu.com
- Email: info@beililiu.com
- Instagram: @beililiu #beililiu
Image Credit:
Beili Liu Studio, Philip Rogers, Amos Morgan, Romain Blanquart
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