Lucy XC Liu
Artist. Writer. Culture Mechanic.
I am a multidisciplinary artist and writer. I invent my own artistic mediums — a unique language composed of sculpture, performance, poetry, photo and video.
I am drawn to the notions of healing on personal and societal levels, of fragility as a state of holding together gracefully and strenuously, of things falling apart as preludes of unity. I explore the multifaceted truths of historical trauma through individual testimonies of hunger and desire that refuse to justify power. My large-scale immersive sculptures and performances are theatrical spaces that envelope viewers and elicit their responses to trigger societal truths; my photo, video, words, and sculptural objects create disorienting narratives of corporeal movement through mystic realms. l self-identify as a “culture mechanic” mending the ruptures between the past and the present, the east and the west. I believe that the magic of art and literature sparks at points of spiritual contact and sutures the crevices within my culture, and between cultures.
I had multiple solo and group exhibitions in the US, China, UK, Italy and Greece. I am a recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the Paris Photo Prize. Reviews of my work are in mainstream media including the Smithsonian Institution, China Daily, and People’s Daily. I write in Chinese, English and French. My publications include an award-winning chapbook of poetry The Rye of Pondering, and articles in the Smithsonian Institution and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases.
I have collaborated with galleries including Gagosian, David Zwirner, 303 Gallery, to interview artists including Gregory Crewdson, Gohar Dashti, Viviane Sassen, Stephen Shore, and James Welling.
I love squirrels. Sending some warm squirrel thoughts to whoever reading this.
(Hover and click to view linked media)
EDUCATION
2023-2025 MA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK
2017-2021 BA with Highest Honors, Studio Art & French Studies, Smith College, USA, GPA 3.83/4.0
2019-2020 Visiting Student, Sorbonne University, France, GPA 3.9/4.0
Languages: Native English & Chinese, Full Professional French
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
Art Awards:
2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, for the artist residency at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY, USA (received in 2020, deferred due to COVID)
2020 Bronze Winner in Book Prize, Paris Photo Prize(Prix de la Photographie Paris), Paris, France
2019 Recipient Team, Innovative Challenge Grant of $3000, Smith College, MA, USA
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 Grant of $3000, Smith College, USA
Writing Awards:
2021 Winner, The Ethel Olin Corbin Prize for Writing, USA
2020 Winner, The Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize for the Best Group of Poems, 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 fourteen finalists were selected based on academic merit and leadership potential.)
EXHIBITIONS
Solo:
2021 Solo Exhibition & Kunqu Performance, The Dream that Flocks South, Acentric Space, SH, China
2022 Selected for the Aranya Theatre Festival, Hebei, China(Canceled due to COVID)
2021 Solo Exhibition, Of the Grassland with No Boundaries which No Fire Can Burn Down, Jannotta Gallery, MA, USA
Group:
2023 Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK
2021 Video poem Unnamed Poem in Mourning, SILENCE, Stillpoint Mag, USA
2020 The Connected World, Los Angeles Center of Photography, LA, USA
2019 Public Immersive Sculpture, Boat, Jannotta Gallery, MA, USA
2019 Commission, What I Thought I Saw, Campus Center, Smith College, 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, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy
INTERVIEWS & REVIEWS
2024 Forthcoming Artist Review, Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, USA
2023 Review, Xiaochuan Liu Promoting Cultural Exchange through Inheritance and Innovation, People’s Daily, China
2023 Review, Poetry Rides New Wave—Searching for authenticity, by Gui Qian, China Daily, China
2021 Interview, From Home: An Interview with Lucy Xiaochuan Liu, by Sophie Poux, Smith College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA
LECTURES & PUBLIC APPEARANCES
2023 Lecturer, Director & Principle Performer, Experimental Kunqu Performance in conjunction with the exhibition An Equivocal Contrast, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China
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
PUBLICATIONS
Literary Works:
2019 Nonfiction, In the Days of Peony Flowers: A Contemporary Reflection on Chinese Kunqu Opera, Folklife Magazine, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution, DC, USA
2019 Poetry Collection, The Rye of Pondering, printed in an edition of 100 by Jubilat, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
2019 Poems, “The Beyond Black,” “The Carrying,” Columbia Journal, Columbia University, NYC
Journalism:
2021 Interview with James Welling, “Presenting in an Incomparable Way: James Welling’s Photographs of Choreography and Sculpture,“ Chinese Photographers’ Magazine, Available on the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) Database, China
2021 Interview with Stephen Shore, “Focus on Stephen Shore’s new works: Town & Country and Instagram,“ Photo World Magazine, China, commended and archived by 303 Gallery, NYC, USA
2021 Interview with Viviane Sassen, “Viviane Sassen: Through Loss to Longing,“ Photo World Magazine, China
2020 Interview with Gohar Dashti, “Gohar Dashti: The Desert Between Us”, Photo World Magazine, China
2020 Interview with Gregory Crewdson, “Gregory Crewdson: An Artful Producer of Dreams,” Photo World Magazine, China
2020 Exhibition Review, “Focus on Nan Goldin’s First Solo Exhibition in China: Interview with Gu Zheng(Curator) and Wang Jun(Collector),” Photo World Magazine, China
Art:
2023 Exhibition, The Dream that Flocks South, Paris Lit Up Magazine, France
2021 Video, Unnamed Poem in Mourning, Stillpoint Magazine, USA
2021 Multimedia, The Other Side, Stillpoint Magazine, USA
2020 Photography, 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 Photography, In Turning Toward the Realm of the Living, Paris Lit Up Magazine, Paris, France
2020 Photography, Self Portraits, Columbia Journal, Columbia University, NYC, USA
RESIDENCIES & PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2023 Artist in Residence, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY, USA
2021 Artist in Residence, Acentric Space, Shanghai, China
2020 Libretto Translator & Publicity for the new film production of the Chinese Kunqu Opera piece The Peony Pavilion, Jin Gu Kunqu Opera Company, Beijing, China
2019 Artist, Public Art Project What I Thought I Saw, Sponsored by an Innovative Challenge Grant from Smith College and presented as a Solo Exhibition, MA, USA
SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCES
Freelance Arts Writer & Journalist, 2019 to present.
Sales, Phillips Auction, Shanghai, China, 2021
Media & Exhibitions Intern, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, China, 2020
Intern, Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, DC, USA, May to August, 2019
Translator, Intern, Freer | Sacker Gallery (National Museum of Asian Art), DC, USA, June, 2019
Intern, Smith College Boutelle-Day Poetry Center, 2018-2019