Lucy XC Liu
Artist. Writer. Culture Mechanic.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and writer creating works across the registers of the analytic, theatric and literary. My large-scale immersive sculptures and enactments(including spoken word poetry and Chinese Kunqu opera) are theatrical spaces that envelope viewers and elicit their responses to trigger societal truths; my photo, video, words, sculptural objects and painting create disorienting narratives of corporeal movement through mystic realms.
With a wide range of sensitive materials that denote fragility, deconstruction and renewal, I question if things falling apart are preludes of unity, and whether healing the ruptures on personal and societal levels is transiently possible. I reenact otherworldly scenes and embody Chinese and Western mythical figures whose audacity and grief have propelled them to transcend not only the constraints of society, but even life and death. I explore the multifaceted truths of societal trauma and the destruction of culture, giving voice to individual testimonies of hunger and desire which often corrode upon the versions of history that justify power.
I am dedicated to global humanities dialogues, self-identifying as a culture-mechanic that mends the ruptures between the past and the present, the East and the West. I had multiple solo and group exhibitions in the US, China, UK, Italy and Greece. I’m a recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the Paris Photo Prize. Reviews of my work are in mainstream media and databases including the Smithsonian Institution, China Daily, and People’s Daily. I served as a guest juror for the 2025 Delaware Devision of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.
I love squirrels. Sending some warm squirrel thoughts to whoever reading this.
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EXHIBITIONS, REVIEWS, LECTURES
Solo Exhibitions:
2021 Solo Exhibition & Kunqu Performance, The Dream that Flocks South, Acentric Space, Shanghai, China
2024 Talk and Young Ambassador Award, Edinburgh City Chambers, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland; featured in China Central Television(CCTV-3) broadcast, 23rd & 24th Sep, 2024, Beijing, China
2024 Review, ‘Bridging Gaps and Stirring Dreams: Lucy XC Liu’s Integration of Traditional and Contemporary Art’, by James Deustch, Smithsonian Institution, included in the Smithsonian Library and Archives database, Washington DC, USA.
2023 Review, ‘Xiaochuan Liu Promoting Cultural Exchange through Inheritance and Innovation’, by Ning Yang & Jiani Tang, People’s Daily, China
2023 Review, ‘Poetry Rides New Wave—Searching for authenticity’, by Qian Gui, China Daily, China
2023 Performance and Artist Lecture, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2021 Solo Exhibition, Of the Grassland with No Boundaries which No Fire Can Burn Down, Jannotta Gallery, MA, USA
2021 Interview ‘From Home: An Interview with Lucy Xiaochuan Liu’, by Sophie Poux, Smith College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA
Group Exhibitions & Commissions:
2024 (Pending) 亘·新 Exhibition & Film Screening, Z-Space, École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris Alumni House, Beijing, China
2024 A.I.R. Exhibition, Kleinert James Center, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, New York, USA
2024 There is Something New Under the Sun, Tank Magazine Reading Room, London, UK
2020 The Connected World, Los Angeles Center of Photography, LA, USA
2019 Commission, What I Thought I Saw, Campus Center, Sponsored by Smith College, MA, USA
2019 Public Immersive Sculpture, Boat, Jannotta Gallery, MA, USA
2019 Cityscapes, Blank Wall Gallery, Athens, Greece
2019 Chania International Photography Festival, The Grand Arsenal, Crete, Greece
2019 Perceptions, Month of Photography Rome, LoosenArt, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy
AWARDS & GRANTS
Art Awards:
(Pending)2025 Global Artistic Shiner, World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland and Suzhou, China
2024 Young Ambassador, jointly awarded by the Asian Art Fund Scotland and the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre China, at the Edinburgh City Chambers, Scotland
2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for an artist residency at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY, USA
2020 Bronze Winner in Book Prize, Paris Photo Prize(Prix de la Photographie Paris), Paris, France
2020 Winner, Columbia Journal Special Issue Art Prize, Columbia University, NYC, USA
2019 and 2021 Winner, The Tryon Prize for Art, Smith College Museum of Art, MA, USA
2019 and 2021 Winner, The Megan Hart Jones Studio Art Prize, USA
2019 and 2020 Recipient, Praxis Internship Grants total $6000, Smith College, USA
2019 Recipient Team, Innovative Challenge Grant of $3000, Smith College, MA, USA
Writing Awards:
2021 Winner, The Ethel Olin Corbin Prize for Writing, USA
2020 Winner, The Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize, USA
2019 First Place, Jubilat Poetry Manuscript Contest, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA
2019 Winner, Massachusetts Five College Poetry Festival Prize, USA
2019 Winner, The Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize for Poetry, USA
Academic & Leadership Recognition:
2023 Rhodes Scholarship Finalist for China, Rhodes Trust, University of Oxford, UK. (Only 14 finalists were selected across China from all academic areas based on academic merit and leadership potential.)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Literary Works:
2021 Visual poems ‘Unnamed Poem in Mourning’ and ‘The Other Side’, Stillpoint Magazine, USA
2020 Poems, ‘The Beyond Black’, ‘The Carrying’, Columbia Journal, Columbia University, USA
2019 Essay, ‘In the Days of Peony Flowers: A Contemporary Reflection on Chinese Kunqu Opera', Folklife Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, DC, USA
2019 Collection of Poems, The Rye of Pondering, selected as first place of the Jubilat Contest and published by Jubilat Journal at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Artwork Features & Catalogues:
2024 Photo, A.I.R. 2024 Exhibition Catalogue, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, New York, USA
2023 Solo Exhibition, The Dream that Flocks South, Paris Lit Up Magazine, France
2020 Photo Book, Of the Grassland with No Boundaries which No Fire Can Burn Down, The Paris Photo Prize (Prix de la Photographie Paris) Annual Book, Paris, France
2020 Photo, In Turning Toward the Realm of the Living, Paris Lit Up Magazine, Paris, France
2020 Photo, Self Portraits, Columbia Journal, Columbia University, NYC, USA
2019 Photo, Perceptions Exhibition Catalogue, LoosenArt, Text Introduction by Silvia Colombo, Rome, Italy
Journalism:
2021 Interview with James Welling, ‘Presenting in an Incomparable Way: James Welling’s Photographs of Choreography and Sculpture’, Chinese Photographers Magazine, Available on Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) Database
2021 Interview, ‘Focus on Stephen Shore’s New Works: Town and Country & Instagram’, Photo World Magazine, Xinhua News Agency, China; Selected into 303 Gallery's press archive, NYC, USA
2021 Interview, ‘Viviane Sassen: Through Loss to Longing’, Photo World, China
2020 Interview, ‘Gohar Dashti: The Desert Between Us’, Photo World, China
2020 Interview, ‘Gregory Crewdson: An Artful Producer of Dreams’, Photo World, China
2020 Review, ‘Focus on Nan Goldin’s First Solo Exhibition in China’, Photo World, China
POETRY READINGS
2019 Featured Poet, Arts Night at the Emily Dickinson Museum, MA, USA
2019 Featured Poet, Poetry Festival, Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Amherst College, MA, USA
2019 Featured Poet, Jubilat Honorary Reading, Jubilat Journal, Unnameable Books, MA, USA
SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCES
2024 Guest Juror, Delaware Division of the Arts 2025 Individual Artist Fellowships Program, Delaware, USA
Evaluate, score and vote upon all applications submitted to the “Visual Art: Interdisciplinary” category.
2019 - present, Freelance Arts Writer, Photo World(affiliated to Xinhua News Agency), Chinese Photographers(Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database), In Light of Shadows, etc
Successfully pitched interview requests to and collaborated with top-tier galleries like Gagosian, David Zwirner, 303 Gallery to interviewed world-class artists and curators including Stephen Shore, Gregory Crewdson, James Welling, Gohar Dashti, Viviane Sassen, Gu Zheng, etc.
Published articles that often made magazine covers, were archived or reposted by artists’ galleries, and included in the CNKI database. Initiated and ideated projects with strong Chinese, English, French skills.
Liaised with and built long-standing partnership with prestigious media, galleries, and museums.
2021 Gallery Assistant and Sales, Phillips Auction, Shanghai Office, China
Supported the China team to host successful preview exhibitions of 5 auctions in BJ, SH and Shenzhen.
Managed staff rota and client lists for a sales team of 20. Provided administrative and customer support in securing bids and during 9 live auctions, contributing to a white glove and record-breaking year.
Represented Phillips and spoke at the ART021 Fair and China International Import Expo.
2019 Intern, National Museum of Asian Art (originally Freer | Sackler Gallery), DC, USA
2019 Intern, Smithsonian Institution, Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage, DC, USA
EDUCATION & PERSONAL INFO
2023-2025 MA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK
2017-2021 Double BA with Highest Honors, Studio Art & French Literature, Smith College, USA, GPA 3.83/4.0
2019-2020 Exchange Student, Sorbonne University, France, GPA 3.9/4.0
Languages: Native English and Chinese, Fluent French
b.1999 Beijing, China