Lucy XC Liu

I am an interdisciplinary artist and writer creating works across the registers of the analytic, theatric and literary. In recent films and sculpture-paintings, I perceive otherworldliness in translucency and opacity, on personal and cultural levels. Perspectives and tactility on opposite sides of thin veils haunt each other, highlighting the translucency and opacity of the divides between life and the beyond, in individual experiences, and cultural structures. Earlier, I created large-scale immersive sculpture and performance as a theatrical space that involve audience complicity to surfaces truths surrounding sociopolitical trauma and the destruction of culture. In my practice, personal grieving intertwine with mythical enactments, sensitive materials denote deconstruction and renewal, questioning if healing is transiently possible.

I am passionate about global humanities dialogues, self-identifying as a culture-mechanic that mends the ruptures between the past and the present, the East and the West. My work has been exhibited in 7 countries, 18 cities. I’m a recipient of a Young Ambassador Award and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. I received in-depth reviews from the Smithsonian Institution, China Daily, and People’s Daily. Recently served as a guest juror for the 2025 Delaware Devision of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships.

EXHIBITIONS, REVIEWS, LECTURES

Solo Exhibitions:

Group Exhibitions, Screenings, Commission:

  • 2025 Half Lecture Half Concert, guest lecture and screening, Peregrine’s Pianos, London, UK

  • 2024 亘新Women’s Health Exhibition, École des Hautes Études Commerciales(HEC) Paris Alumni House, Beijing, China, recommended by The Paper, Alliance Française, Lifeweek

  • 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, Smith College, MA, USA

  • 2019 Public Immersive Sculpture, Boat, Jannotta Gallery, MA, USA

  • 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:

  • 2025 Almacantar Award, London, UK

  • 2024 Young Ambassador, awarded at the Edinburgh City Chambers, Scotland

  • 2023 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, including residency at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, NY, USA

  • 2021 & 2019 The Tryon Prize for Art, Smith College Museum of Art, MA, USA

  • 2021 & 2019 The Megan Hart Jones Studio Art Prize, USA

  • 2020 & 2019 Recipient, Praxis Funding, Smith College, USA

  • 2020 Bronze in Book Prize, Paris Photo Prize(Prix de la Photographie Paris), Paris, France

  • 2020 Columbia Journal Special Issue Art Prize, Columbia University, NYC, USA

  • 2019 Team Recipient, Innovative Challenge Grant, Smith College, MA, USA

Writing Awards:

  • 2021 The Ethel Olin Corbin Prize for Writing, USA

  • 2020 The Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize, USA

  • 2019 First Place, Jubilat Journal Poetry Manuscript Contest, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA, USA

  • 2019 Massachusetts Five College Poetry Festival Prize, USA

  • 2019 The Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize for Poetry, USA

Leadership Recognition:

  • 2023 Rhodes Scholarship Finalist, University of Oxford, UK (14 finalists were selected across China)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Art Writing & Conversations:

  • 2021 Interview, ‘Presenting in an Incomparable Way: James Welling’s Photographs of Choreography and Sculpture’, Chinese Photographers Magazine, available in the CNKI Database, China

  • 2021 Interview, ‘Focus on Stephen Shore’s New Works: Town and Country & Instagram’, Photo World Magazine, Xinhua News Agency, China; spotlighted in the 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

Literary Works & Readings:

  • 2021 Visual poems ‘Unnamed Poem in Mourning’ and ‘The Other Side’, Stillpoint Mag, 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 Poetry Collection, The Rye of Pondering, by Jubilat at University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCES

  • 2024 Guest Juror, Delaware Division of the Arts(DDOA) 2025 Individual Artist Fellowships Program, Delaware Department of State, USA

  • 2019 to present, Freelance Arts Writer, Photo World(affiliated to Xinhua News Agency), Chinese Photographers(China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database), In Light of Shadows, etc

  • 2021 Gallery Assistant and Sales, Phillips Auction, Shanghai Office, China

  • 2019 Gallery Educator, National Museum of Asian Art (originally Freer | Sackler Gallery), DC, USA

  • 2019 Praxis Funded Intern, Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife & Cultural Heritage, DC, USA

EDUCATION