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:
2021 Solo Exhibition & Kunqu Performance, The Dream that Flocks South, Acentric Space, Shanghai, China
2024 Guest Lecture, Asian Art Awards at Edinburgh City Chambers, 14 Aug, Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland; featured in China Central Television(CCTV-3) broadcast, 23&24 Sep, Beijing, China
2024 Interview, ‘Bridging Gaps and Stirring Dreams: Lucy XC Liu’s Integration of Traditional and Contemporary Art’, James Deutsch, Smithsonian, in Smithsonian Library & Archives Database, DC, USA
2023 Review, ‘Xiaochuan Liu Facilitates Cultural Exchange through Inheritance and Innovation’, by Ning Yang & Jiani Zhang, People’s Daily, China
2023 Review, ‘Poetry Rides New Wave—Searching for Authenticity’, Qian Gui, China Daily, China
2023 Guest Lecture, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Residence Artist Practice Share, NY, USA
2023 Guest Lecture & Performance, 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, SCMA, USA
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
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
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
2023-2025 MA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK
2017-2021 BA Highest Honors, Studio Art & French Literature, Smith College, USA
2019-2020 Dean’s List; Exchange Student, Sorbonne University, France
Languages: Native English and Chinese, Fluent French