January 20 - February 24, 2024
From Ivester Contemporary:
“Ivester Contemporary is proud to present Beili Liu’s 2019 installation titled, Inheritance. Liu writes, “In 2018, I received a remarkable gift from artist Diane Sandlin, a large collection of crochet pieces created by her grandmother, Rosa Elliott Freeman (1884-1977). I was taken by the beauty and weight of these objects and the countless hours of making and providing embedded in them. With Diane’s permission, I dipped this large crochet bedspread in black pine tar, suspended it in the center of the room, draped from it hundreds of sewing needles, and titled the installation, naturally, Inheritance.” The handmade bedspread was transformed by Liu during her artist residency at the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2019. The piece serves as a celebration of women’s work, cultural memory, social and environmental concerns. This will be the first time this piece has been displayed in Austin.
Born in Jilin, China, Beili Liu now lives and works in Austin, Texas. Liu received her MFA degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2003). Liu is the Leslie Waggener Endowed Professor in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Liu served on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Museum Panel (2019), and her teaching has been endorsed by a UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (2011), selected across the nine institutions of the University of Texas System.
Beili Liu is a visual artist who creates material-and-process-driven, site-responsive installations and performances. Liu’s current research focuses on the complex ecological, political, and environmental concerns facing the Circumpolar North and the urgency of the climate crisis on a planetary scale working with commonplace materials and elements such as thread, needle, scissors, feather, salt, wax, and cement, Liu manipulates their intrinsic qualities to extrapolate complex cultural and environmental narratives.
Liu has exhibited extensively across the globe. Liu has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2022-2024); the Pollock Prize for Creativity (2022); the Fulbright Arctic Chair, a Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Award (Norway, 2021-2022); the Fulbright Finland Inter-Country Grant (2022); the Brian Wall Grant for Sculptors (2022); NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship (2021-2024); Bessie Honoree for Outstanding Visual Design (2020), for Liu’s stage installation at the Lincoln Center, NYC, a New York Times Critic’s Pick (2019); the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2016); the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant through the Museum of Southeast Texas (2014). In 2018, Liu was honored by the Texas Legislature as the Texas State Artist in 3D medium. Liu received the Distinction Award at the Kaunas Biennial, Lithuania (2011), and a San Francisco Mayor’s Award (2008) for her contribution to cultural exchange. Liu participated in artist residencies at the Joan Mitchell Center (2019), Studios at MASS MoCA (2019), Facebook Headquarter AIR (2018), Roman Witt Visiting Artist Residency, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2015), Fundación Valparaíso, Spain (2009), Fiskars AIR, Finland (2007), Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA (2006), and Art Farm, NE (2004).
Liu’s work has been featured by PBS Arts in Context series, Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, ArtNews, Art Papers, ArtSlant, Artillery, The Huffington Post, Climate Progress, Public Art Review, Sacchi Review, UK, Helsinki Sanomat News, Finland, Morgenbladet, Norway, China Daily, Yishu, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Hamburg Abendblatt and Vita (Life) Magazine, Italy, among others.”
916 Springdale Rd Bldg 2, Suite 107 Austin, TX 78702
Austin, 78702 Texas
Get directions