:Beili Liu
{{short description|Chinese-born US-based visual artist (born 1974)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Beili Liu (artist)
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}
| birth_place = Jilin, China
| nationality = American
| education = University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| known_for = Installation, public art, fiber art, performance, drawing
| website = {{url|http://beililiu.com/}}
| image = Beili Liu PR.jpg
| native_name = 刘北立
劉北立
| awards = Andrew Carnegie Fellowship; Pollock Prize for Creativity; Fulbright Distinguished Arctic Chair; Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant; National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant; Texas State Artist in 3D Media
}}
Beili Liu ({{Lang-zh|刘北立}}; born 1974) is a Chinese-born US-based visual artist who makes large-scale, process-driven sculptural environments that examine themes of migration, cultural memory, materiality, labor, social and environmental concerns.{{Cite web|title=BIO - BEILI LIU 刘北立|url=http://www.beililiu.com/BIO|website=www.beililiu.com|language=en|access-date=2020-05-16}} Through unconventional use of commonplace materials and elements such as thread, needle, scissors, feather, salt, wax, and cement, Liu extrapolates complex cultural narratives through a hybrid work form that merges site-responsive installation, sculpture, public art, and performance.{{Cite web|last=August|first=Laura|date=November 29, 2017|title=TX Studio: Beili Liu|url=http://artsandculturetx.com/tx-studio-beili-liu/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203002114/http://artsandculturetx.com:80/tx-studio-beili-liu/ |archive-date=December 3, 2017 |access-date=|website=Arts and Culture Texas}} Liu lives and works in Austin, Texas. Liu is the Leslie Waggener Professor in the Fine Arts and is a University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Professor{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Regents Outstanding Teaching Awards|url=https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/regents-outstanding-teaching-awards|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150831141223/http://www.utsystem.edu:80/sites/regents-outstanding-teaching-awards |archive-date=August 31, 2015 |access-date=|website=University of Texas System}} at the University of Texas at Austin.{{Cite web|title=Beili Liu - Department of Art and Art History - The University of Texas at Austin|url=https://art.utexas.edu/people/beili-liu|website=Department of Art and Art History - University of Texas at Austin|language=en|access-date=2020-05-16}}
Early life
Beili Liu was born in a farming village in the Northeast province of Jilin, China to parents who were among the 16 million sent-down youth during China's Cultural Revolution. After ten years of exile and re-education in the countryside, her parents relocated to the Northeast Chinese industrial city of Shenyang. In 1989, one month before the Tiananmen Square Protests, her family migrated to the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, a major manufacturing center and economic hub bordering Hong Kong and one of four "Special Economic Zones" designated at the early stage of the Chinese economic reform.
Education
Liu attended Shenzhen University, studying Chinese Literature before immigrating to the US in 1995. Liu received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2001 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2003 as a Barbour Scholar.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Barbour Scholars|url=https://rackham.umich.edu/rackham-life/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/barbour-scholars/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011154210/https://rackham.umich.edu/rackham-life/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/barbour-scholars/ |archive-date=October 11, 2018 |access-date=|website=Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor}}
Career
Early in Liu's career senior critic Janet Kaplos remarked in Art in America (2009) that Liu's installations were "materially simple but metaphorically rich." DeWitt Cheng, art critic for Artillery, noted in 2012 that "The idea of aggression and danger halted by gentle restraint is ... embodied" in Liu's site-specific installations.
Beili Liu has held solo exhibitions at the Crow Museum of Asian Art (2020),{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2021-01-12|title=Beili Liu: One and Another|url=https://crowcollection.org/exhibition/beili-liu-one-and-another/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512054649/https://crowcollection.org/exhibition/beili-liu-one-and-another/ |archive-date=May 12, 2020 |access-date=|website=}} Dallas, Texas, [https://galerie-ruetz.de/ Galerie An Der Pinakothek Der Moderne], Munich, Germany (2018, 2011), [http://www.hagamleprestegard.no/][http://www.hagamleprestegard.no/ Hå Gamle Prestegard], Norwegian National Art and Culture Museum (2016, 2011), Hua Gallery, London, UK (2012), Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai, China (2009), and the Chinese Culture Foundation, San Francisco (2015, 2008). Liu's work has been showcased in group exhibitions at 何香凝美术馆 Hexiangning Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China (2022), Artpace, San Antonio (2021), the New Orleans Museum of Art (2020), Asia Society Texas Center (2022, 2019), Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, Poland (2017), 杭州纤维三年展 Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, China (2016), National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (2012), Hamburg Art Week, Germany (2012), the [https://biennialfoundation.org/biennials/kaunas-biennial/ Kaunas Biennale], [https://ciurlionis.lt/ National M. K. Ciurlionis Art Museum], Lithuania (2011), and the 23rd and 25th Miniartextil International Contemporary Fiber Art exhibitions in Como, Italy (2015, 2013).{{Cite web|title=The twenty-fifth edition of Miniartextil, was dedicated to Expo Milano 2015 and its theme, "Feed the Planet, Energy for Life." The exhibition took place in Como, Cernobbio and Paris Montrouge.|url=https://www.miniartextil.it/en/exhibitions/nuova-exhibition|url-status=live|website=www.miniartextil.it|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618124032/https://www.miniartextil.it/en/exhibitions/nuova-exhibition |archive-date=June 18, 2020 }}
Honors and grants
Beili Liu is a 2022-2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, representing the first visual artist awarded this humanities and social sciences fellowship in support of scholarship that "addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society." Liu received the 2022 [https://pkf.org/grants/pollock-prize-for-creativity/ Pollock Prize for Creativity] and the [https://brianwallfoundation.org/grants/ Brian Wall Brian Wall Foundation Grant for Sculptors] through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Liu is a 2021-2022 Fulbright [https://exchanges.state.gov/us/program/fulbright-distinguished-chairs-program Distinguished Scholar] as the [https://fulbright.no/grants/grants-to-norway/us-scholars/arctic-chair/ Arctic Chair] to Norway, and a 2016 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant recipient.{{Cite web|last=Foundation|first=Joan Mitchell|title=Joan Mitchell Center » Artist Programs|url=https://joanmitchellfoundation.org/center/artist-in-residence/2019-sessions/fall-2019/beili-liu1|access-date=2020-05-16|website=joanmitchellfoundation.org|language=en}} Liu has been designated the 2018 Texas State Artist{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=State Artist (visual art)|url=https://www.arts.texas.gov/initiatives/texas-state-artist/state-artist-visual-arts/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023172648/http://www.arts.texas.gov/initiatives/texas-state-artist/state-artist-visual-arts/ |archive-date=October 23, 2012 |access-date=|website=Texas Commission on the Arts}} in 3D medium by the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Commission on The Arts. Beili Liu's work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant for her exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, 2014.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=NEA Grant Announcement|url=https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/CAFT-grants-12-11-13.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331230450/http://arts.gov/sites/default/files/CAFT-grants-12-11-13.pdf |archive-date=March 31, 2014 |access-date=|website=National Endowment for the Arts}} Liu's public art project Sky Bridge was named Best Public Art Installation by KQED.{{Cite web|title=Reflecting on Art: The Eight Best Things I Saw in 2015|url=https://www.kqed.org/arts/11184597/the-8-best-things-i-saw-in-2015|access-date=2020-05-22|website=KQED|date=December 28, 2015 |language=en-us}} In 2013, Liu was invited by Women & Their Work Gallery to create a collaborative public art project THIRST,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Arts in Context: THIRST, Documentary|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/arts-context-thirst/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606204952/https://www.pbs.org/video/arts-context-thirst/ |archive-date=June 6, 2020 |access-date=|website=PBS.org}} which was supported in part by a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Women & Their Work|url=https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/grants/women-their-work|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103071422/http://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/grants/women-their-work |archive-date=November 3, 2014 |access-date=|website=Robert Rauschenberg Foundation}} Liu has held a number of artist residency fellowships, including the Joan Mitchell Center,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Joan Mitchell Center Artist-in-Residence|url=https://joanmitchellfoundation.org/center/artist-in-residence/2019-sessions/fall-2019/beili-liu1|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606203506/https://joanmitchellfoundation.org/center/artist-in-residence/2019-sessions/fall-2019/beili-liu1 |archive-date=June 6, 2020 |access-date=|website=Joan Mitchell Foundation}} Studios at MASS MoCA,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Beili Liu: Artist Residence at Joan Mitchell Center and Studios at MASS MoCA|url=https://art.utexas.edu/news/beili-liu-serving-artist-residence-joan-mitchell-center-mass-moca|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606203500/https://art.utexas.edu/news/beili-liu-serving-artist-residence-joan-mitchell-center-mass-moca |archive-date=June 6, 2020 |access-date=|website=Department of Art and Art History, UT Austin}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Artists @ The Studios at MASS MoCA|url=https://www.assetsforartists.org/the-studios-archive|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606203441/https://www.assetsforartists.org/the-studios-archive |archive-date=June 6, 2020 |access-date=|website=MASS MoCA's Assets for Artists}} Facebook AIR,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Skywell Austin, FB AIR Project|url=https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1048882418582584|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Facebook Artist-in-Residence Program}} Austin TX, Fiskars AIR, Finland, Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA, and Fundación Valparaíso, Spain, Art Farm, Nebraska.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Little House Stands on the Prairie at Art Farm|url=http://www.beililiu.com/The-Little-House-Stands-on-the-Prairie|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719082331/http://www.beililiu.com:80/The-Little-House-Stands-on-the-Prairie |archive-date=July 19, 2016 |access-date=|website=beililiu.com}} She received a Distinction award at the Kaunas Biennial Lithuania (2011),{{Cite web|title=Liu, Beili {{!}} textile'11: REWIND – PLAY – FORWARD|url=http://www.bienale.lt/2011/?p=643&lang=en|access-date=2020-05-16|language=en-US}} and was honoured by a San Francisco Mayor's Award (2008) for her contribution to cultural exchange.