Hung Liu
Profile II, 2005
Jacquard tapestry
78 x 82.5 in.
edition of 8

In Spring of 2005, Hung Liu created her first piece at Magnolia Editions, a tapestry of her painting Profile II. Liu found inspiration for this image in a series of photographs called Chinese-types 1869-72, by Scottish photographer John Thomson. Liu, who often paints from old photographs, reclaims and transforms this image via her own unique aesthetic. She searches for “the mythic pose beneath the human figure,” combining contemporary techniques with ancient Chinese motifs. Liu’s work is layered with paint, layered in meaning and in history, and now layered with interwoven threads. She continues to combine layers of meaning at Magnolia by developing weave files for upcoming tapestries, in which painted imagery, abstract textures, and images scanned from Liu’s sketchbook are digitally combined to form striking new compositions.