bio | S. F. Liu

Born in a small rural village on the outskirts of Taipei, Taiwan in 1973, Ms. Liu struggled to obtain an education by working and studying constantly. She won a scholarship to the Taiwan National University and while there, also began her career as an artist having several shows in Taipei. Eager to further her education and skill-set, Ms. Liu attended Cornell University through a scholarship, pursuing a master’s degree in landscape architecture. However, when the head of art department became aware of her paintings, she immediately received a grant for a solo show in the School of Art’s gallery -- an opportunity not normally afforded a non art student.

After receiving her masters in landscape architecture she joined Olin Partnership of Philadelphia -- the most prestigious firm in the field -- as a landscape architect and their top artist for complex renderings and design. There, on many projects she has contributed visual concepts and worked with several well known architects including Laurie Olin and Frank Gehry. However, her desire to paint has never ebbed. She is currently immersed in a series on the "new> urbanism" revolutionizing China that is rapidly altering its former agrarian culture. She celebrates the stately beauty of the peasant toiling the fields while, on the other hand, is awed by the raging growth of the technology and urban development in the world's next leading super power. Images of this cultural sea-change affecting a billion people -- and nostalgia for the simple life of her youth -- constantly flood her mind and inform her creativity. Now, having been influenced by architectural design, she is also searching for spirit of her adopted country in her work. She focuses on quintessential urban scenes that reflect the culture of American life and represent the interaction of people and architecture, revealing a richness of American urban pictorial history.

The paintings she makes are about China, a country that is in the process of completely transforming itself. She also explores various media forms and topics in her work which reflect a multitude of interests: from landscape to streetscape to collage abstraction and color studies. Ms. Liu joined Allen Sheppard Gallery, NYC in 2006 where she will have her first solo exhibition in 2010.