Hung Liu, an American artist of Chinese descent, is esteemed for her ability to convert her canvases and paper surfaces into memorials for marginalized women and children. While growing up, Liu was subjected to forced labor during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. In 1984, she immigrated to California to further her artist education. She created compelling portraits of laborers, refugees, orphaned children, women combatants, and sex workers by combining historical black-and-white photographs with iconography from traditional Chinese arts in the 1990s. In her work, Liu monumentalizes these neglected individuals, whom she refers to as "spirit ghosts," depicting them as mythic figures in historical painting.
The exhibition "Hung Liu: Making History," organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, presents selections from the museum's extensive collection of Liu’s works. It highlights her techniques, including collage, layered colors, motifs, and drip marks described as a “veil of tears.” The exhibition features Liu’s major paintings, Summer with Cynical Fish (2014) and Winter with Cynical Fish (2014), and includes a promised gift of a monumental canvas showcasing her dynamic brushstrokes, evocative symbols, and vibrant colors.