Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey claimed femininity is “to-be-looked-at-ness.”

Hung Liu’s oil and enamel paintings take that idea to a deeper level. Liu paints the visual language of Chinese ideals of womanhood. In Remote Portraits, Liu turns her perceptive gaze to the women who figure prominently in China’s mythologized past—courtly female prostitutes and concubines, as well as common women from the late Qing Dynasty. Additionally, the exhibition provokes a contemplation of the shadow and weight of history, and of the layers of cultural memory that linger in the individual and collective mind like the dripping layers of vividly colored linseed oil on her paintings.

In an artist talk, she provides insight into her fascinating work and will undoubtedly highlight how her upbringing in Maoist China informs her vision of art and women in China and America.