Hung Liu (劉虹) (Chinese-American, 1948 – 2021)
Hung Liu (劉虹) was a Chinese-born American artist celebrated for her evocative paintings and installations that explored themes of memory, identity, and social history. Born in Changchun, China, she came of age during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, spending four years in forced agrarian labor. Trained in the Socialist Realist style at Beijing Teachers College and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu secretly photographed rural farmers to document their lives, defying government restrictions.
In 1984, Liu immigrated to the United States to pursue artistic freedom and earned an MFA from the University of California, San Diego. Her work often incorporated historical black-and-white photographs, reimagining them with vibrant colors and fluid brushstrokes. Liu’s art monumentalized marginalized figures—laborers, refugees, women soldiers, and sex workers—whom she called “spirit ghosts,” transforming them into mythic symbols of resilience.
Liu’s career included major retrospectives such as Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Liu (1998–1999), and her works are housed in prominent institutions like the Smithsonian and SFMOMA. A professor emerita at Mills College, she received numerous accolades, including NEA Fellowships and a Lifetime Achievement Award in printmaking. Liu’s legacy endures as a voice for the forgotten and dispossessed.
