COMFORT WOMEN

Posted: December 22nd, 2012 ˑ Filled under: Exhibitions ˑ Comments Closed

Hung Liu, Strange Fruit (Comfort Women), 80 x 160″ Oil on Canvas, 2001

Hung Liu grew up in China and came of age during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She spent four years in the countryside as a laborer, studied painting at the Central Academy of Art and in 1984, received permission to attend the University of California-San Diego where she earned an M.F.A.

Using anonymous historical photographs as the subject matter of her paintings and prints, Liu reconstructs an unknown story. She embellishes the surfaces with lovely drawings of insects, flowers and birds, painterly drips and collage elements that create veils of time and meaning over her subjects.

“Everything is relative. My work is not timeless. It is not universal, as if anywhere you take art it will always be the same. Rather it is already broken down, with different cultural styles. There is a lot of middle ground and ambiguity, especially when I use historical photographs.”
-Hung Liu

The exhibition was on display January 21, 2005 – February 27, 2005.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rena Bransten Gallery

Selected Bibliography on Hung Liu
Compiled by Jodi Kovach, 2003