Charlene Liu. “Soup Spoon”, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches. / “China Palace”, 2024. Wood, cardboard, lights, mirror, prints, objects from mother’s restaurant, Dimensions variable. Photo: Peter Perigo, Courtesy USC Pacific Asia Museum.
Charlene Liu was born in Taiwan and raised in the American Midwest.
Her paintings, prints, and mixed media installations weave together familial histories, cultural tropes, and decorative motifs to explore the malleable conditions of memory, heritage, and identity. Imagery draws freely from nature, food, ephemera, still life paintings, Rococo ornamentation, and East Asian art and design. Liu’s luminous, layered compositions evoke multi-layered realities, fluid states, and imaginative realms through material process, vibrant colors, and playful juxtapositions. Her work has been exhibited at the USC Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts, Umatilla, OR; Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR; and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, OR. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Columbia University, New York and a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. Liu is a Professor of Art and Printmaking at the University of Oregon. “I see Liu’s work becoming increasingly thoughtful and personal, reflecting on nostalgia, distances from/longing for homelands, familial relations, and migration stories that shape so many of us.” says Jenny Lin PhD, Director of the MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere, University of Southern California, “Simultaneously, Liu’s work has in recent years become more and more relevant by integrating cross-cultural themes and helping to foster intercultural understanding and empathy at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.” “It has been a rewarding experience to collaborate with curators on my two recent projects.” Says Liu, “I would like to continue building relationships with curators who can help contextualize my art for a diverse, intergenerational audience.”