Beili Liu

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Beili Liu (artist)
刘北立 劉北立
Beili Liu PR.jpg
Born1974 (age 46–47)
Jilin, China
NationalityAmerican, Chinese
EducationUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Known forInstallation, public art, fiber art, performance, drawing
AwardsFulbright Arctic Chair; Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant; National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant; Texas State Artist in 3D Media
Websitebeililiu.com

Beili Liu (Chinese: 刘北立; born 1974) is a Chinese-born US-based visual artist who makes large-scale, process-driven installations that address themes of migration, cultural memory, materiality and labor.[1] Through unconventional use of commonplace materials such as thread, needle, scissors, fire, and water, Liu extrapolates complex cultural narratives through a hybrid work form that merges site-responsive installation, sculpture, public art, and performance.[2] Liu lives and works in Austin, Texas. Liu is the Leslie Waggener Professor in the Fine Arts and is a University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Professor[3] at the University of Texas at Austin.[4]

Early life[]

Beili Liu was born in a farming village in the Northeast province of Jilin, China to parents who were among the 16 million sent-down youth during China's Cultural Revolution. After ten years of exile and re-education in the countryside, her parents relocated to the Northeast Chinese industrial city of Shenyang. In 1989, one month before the Tiananmen Square Protests, her family migrated to the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, a major manufacturing center and economic hub bordering Hong Kong and one of four "Special Economic Zones" designated at the early stage of Chinese economic reform.

Education[]

Liu attended Shenzhen University, studying Chinese Literature before immigrating to the US in 1995. Liu received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2001 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2003 as a Barbour Scholar.[5]

Career[]

Early in Liu's career senior critic Janet Kaplos remarked in Art in America (2009) that Liu's installations were "materially simple but metaphorically rich." DeWitt Cheng, art critic for Artillery, noted in 2012 that "The idea of aggression and danger halted by gentle restraint is ... embodied" in Liu's site-specific installations.

Beili Liu has held solo exhibitions at the Crow Museum of Asian Art (2020),[6] Dallas, Texas, Galerie An Der Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2018, 2011),  [no], Norwegian National Art and Culture Center (2016, 2011), Hua Gallery, London, UK (2012), Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai, China (2009), and the Chinese Culture Foundation, San Francisco (2015, 2008). Liu's work has been showcased in group exhibitions at Artpace, San Antonio (2021), the New Orleans Museum of Art (2020), Asia Society Texas Center (2019), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, Poland (2017), Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art. Zhejiang Art Museum, China (2016), National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2012), Hamburg Art Week, Germany (2012), the Kaunas Biennale, Lithuania (2011),[7] and the 23rd and 25th Miniartextil International Contemporary Fiber Art exhibitions in Como, Italy (2015, 2013).[8]

Honors and grants[]

Beili Liu is a 2021-2022 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar as the Arctic Chair to Norway. Liu is a 2016 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant recipient.[9] Liu has been designated the 2018 Texas State Artist[10] 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 Challenge America Grant for her exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, 2014.[11] Liu's public art project Sky Bridge was named Best Public Art Installation by KQED.[12] In 2013, Liu was invited by Women & Their Work Gallery to create a collaborative public art project THIRST,[13] which was supported in part by a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant.[14] Liu has held a number of artist residency fellowships, including the Joan Mitchell Center,[15] Studios at MASS MoCA,[16][17] Facebook AIR,[18] Austin TX, Fiskars AIR, Finland, Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA, and Fundación Valparaíso, Spain, Art Farm, Nebraska.[19] She received a Distinction award at the Kaunas Biennial Lithuania (2011),[7] and was honored by a San Francisco Mayor's Award (2008) for her contribution to cultural exchange.

References[]

  1. ^ "BIO - BEILI LIU 刘北立". www.beililiu.com. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  2. ^ August, Laura. "TX Studio: Beili Liu". Arts and Culture Texas.
  3. ^ "Regents Outstanding Teaching Awards". University of Texas System.
  4. ^ "Beili Liu - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin". Department of Art and Art History - University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  5. ^ "Barbour Scholars". Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
  6. ^ "Beili Liu: One and Another". January 12, 2021.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Liu, Beili | textile'11: REWIND – PLAY – FORWARD". Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  8. ^ "The twenty-fifth edition of Miniartextil, was dedicated to Expo Milano 2015 and its theme, "Feed the Planet, Energy for Life." The exhibition took place in Como, Cernobbio and Paris Montrouge". www.miniartextil.it.
  9. ^ Foundation, Joan Mitchell. "Joan Mitchell Center » Artist Programs". joanmitchellfoundation.org. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  10. ^ "State Artist (visual art)". Texas Commission on the Arts.
  11. ^ "NEA Grant Announcement" (PDF). National Endowment for the Arts.
  12. ^ "Reflecting on Art: The Eight Best Things I Saw in 2015". KQED. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  13. ^ "Arts in Context: THIRST, Documentary". PBS.org.
  14. ^ "Women & Their Work". Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
  15. ^ "Joan Mitchell Center Artist-in-Residence". Joan Mitchell Foundation.
  16. ^ "Beili Liu: Artist Residence at Joan Mitchell Center and Studios at MASS MoCA". Department of Art and Art History, UT Austin.
  17. ^ "Artists @ The Studios at MASS MoCA". MASS MoCA's Assets for Artists.
  18. ^ "Skywell Austin, FB AIR Project". Facebook Artist-in-Residence Program.
  19. ^ "The Little House Stands on the Prairie at Art Farm". beililiu.com.
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