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HUNG LIU
This is to let you know that Hung Liu will have a show entitled "Za Zhong--Bastard Paintings" in Nancy Hoffman Gallery's Project Space from December 3, 2005 to January 3, 2006. This is the first time these works have been shown in New York.
 
With master printers of Trillium Press, Hung Liu has invented a new approach to making works that can no longer be called prints. Hybrids of the painting and printmaking processes, Liu calls these works "Za Zhong," which translates as hybrids, uncertain of their origins, or "Bastard Paintings."
 
Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Blessed, 2005,
mixed media, 31 x 31 inches		 Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Loquat, 2005,
mixed media, 34 x 34 inches 		Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Orchid, 2005,
mixed media, 31 x 31 inches
 
Several works include an image of a beguiling young girl's face, each juxtaposed with a different array of Chinese historical images and painting motifs, as well as Liu's signature washes, drips, and her characteristic circles-as spots of color throughout the composition and symbolic of the universe in Chinese iconography. The "Za Zhongs" with faces are related in sharing a "starter" image. Thereafter the pieces digress, and each takes on a life of its own.
 
Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Plum Blossom, 2005,
mixed media, 38 x 33 inches 		Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Madame Hudie, 2005,
mixed media, 38 x 33 inches 		Hung Liu
Hung Liu, March, 2005,
mixed media, 33 x 33 inches
 

In a traditional print, all the layers (of whatever the media) are on top of one another. In Liu's "Za Zhong" pieces, each mounted in a wooden box; the layers are separated by 1/8 inch of resin. These works begin with a digital base image taken from the artist's own oeuvre, an iris print that is then coated with wax in the areas the artist wants to retain. The rest of the image is washed away with water. This allows Liu to redraw her image, alter it, and transform it from the original painting source, setting the stage for the subsequent layers of cast resin, painting (in oil or in ink), collage elements from historical sources or from the artist's own paintings.

     
Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Cherries to Chickens, 2005,
mixed media, 43 x 33 inches 		Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Polly and Teddy, 2005,
mixed media, 34 x 34 inches 		Hung Liu
Hung Liu, Pony and Dog, 2005,
mixed media, 43 x 31 inches
 
Liu may paint, for instance, a bird or flower or dragon, and include some of her signature gestures and shapes, and then seal this layer with resin. The resin is cast on top of the paint or ink, enhancing its colors and providing a translucent source of light. And then the artist begins to lay in other images or washes or shapes. The paint and resin layers cycle as many as six times or as few as two. The artist does not pre-determine the number of layers she will apply. The process is organic and particular to each of the "Za Zhongs."
 
The final layer is always one of resin. Once this is dry, Liu paints the edges of the wooden box in color, usually red or yellow. On the sides of some of the "Za Zhongs," she writes a poem or couplet in Chinese characters, echoing the tradition of signposts used in China outside the home.
 
Voluptuous in appearance, filled with light and shimmer, the "Za Zhong" works break new territory for the artist as she honors her traditional subject matter of women and historical images from China.
     
Hung Liu was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She grew up in Beijing during the time of Mao Tse-tung. After finishing high school in 1968 she was sent to the countryside for four years during the Cultural Revolution where she worked with peasants in rice, wheat, and cornfields seven days a week. During this time she photographed local farmers with their families and also made drawings of them. In 1972 she entered the Revolutionary Entertainment Department of Beijing's Teachers College to study art and education. After graduating in 1975 she began teaching art at an elite Beijing school, Jing Shan, and also began to teach a program for children on television, "How to Draw and Paint," which lasted several years and was widely renowned. In 1979 she attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts where she majored in mural painting. In 1980 she applied to the visual arts program at the University of California, San Diego. After being accepted, it took Liu four years to obtain a passport from the Chinese government. She arrived in California in 1984.
     
More with Hung Liu in the Studio Hung Liu Exhibition 2003 Hung Liu Seven Poses
     
The artist has never shied away from the social, political, or philosophical implications of China's past regimes. As a bi-cultural citizen, she is in a position to re-present and re-examine Chinese culture, past and present, while she combines images from her own life experience.
Hung Liu received a B.F.A. in Education from Beijing Teachers College, China and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego; she also did graduate work in mural painting at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
Her work has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, California; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Santa Clara University, California; Monterey Museum of Art, California; Oakland Museum of California; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; San Jose Museum of Art, California; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Hung Liu's work is included in the collections of Boise Art Museum, Idaho; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York; City of San Jose, California; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, California; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California;, California; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Oakland Museum of California; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; San Jose Museum of Art, California; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She was awarded a commission from the Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, California.
The artist has twice received Painting Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; Capp Street Project Stipend, California College of Arts & Crafts, San Francisco; Eureka Fellowship in Painting, The Fleishhacher Foundation, San Francisco, California; The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters Sculptors Grant, New York; Russell Foundation Grant, University of California, San Diego. She has won the San Francisco Women's Center Humanities Award, California; Contemporary Art by Women of Color Artists' Award, Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, Texas and Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California. She has also received grants and scholarships from University of California, San Diego and Mills College, Oakland, California.

Hung Liu resides in Oakland, California.