Miss. Jiayu Liu (b. 1990, Liaoning, China)

Lives and works in Beijing and London

MA: Royal College of Art, 2014

 

Jiayu is a media artist known for her immersive media installations.  Over a decade of practice has led her to experiment with various art forms and media, ranging from site-specific light and sculptural work to 3D projection mapping, mobile media, mixed realities, AI, and beyond.  These endeavors result in evocative, sensory, and often monumental installations that bear a distinctive imprint of Chinese artistic expression, infused with the imagery of the natural environment.

 

Within Jiayu's portfolio of media art landscapes, the focus extends beyond mere representation.  Her installations transcend the confines of visual art to become emotional expressions of the environments they depict.  Her work invites viewers to forge meaningful and profound connections with nature and the universe. She approaches her artistic practice with deep poetic and philosophical sensibilities.  She consistently interrogates the materiality of the media and technologies employed in her creations, pushing them in novel directions.  Her art frequently relegates the media to the background, sometimes rendering it nearly invisible, while accentuating narrative elements that solicit emotional responses within the spaces she meticulously composes.

 

Jiayu's engagement with data is another facet of her artistic exploration.  She grapples with the seemingly cold and foreboding world of environmental data and statistics, rendering it tangible and relevant to our environment and ourselves.  In Jiayu’s work, the natural world is recreated and augmented to serve as a vehicle for exploring human responses to their emphasized relationships with nature and the lived environment.  Her unique sensibility gives rise to soft, immersive spaces that envelop us, almost in a warm embrace, forging unexpected connections with nature and natural phenomena.

 

Jiayu Liu has exhibited internationally in many museums, including the V&A in London;  K11 Art Space;  K11 MUSEA in Hong Kong;  He Xiangning Museum;  Guan Shanyue Museum;  SWCAC in Shenzhen;  CAFA Museum;  Times Museum;  Today Art Museum;  Riverside Museum;  UCCA Lab in Beijing;  Power Long Museum;  OCAT;  MOCA;  and UCCA Edge in Shanghai.  Jiayu has also shown work in galleries and fairs, such as the Saatchi Gallery, the London Design Festival, Kinetica Art Fair London, London Fashion Week, Beijing Media Art Biennial, and Guangzhou Triennial.  In 2022, Jiayu was selected to display work in the Chinese Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale.  Jiayu has collaborated with BVLGARI, Burberry, Longines, Lancôme, and Polar Star brands.  She has done public art commissions for the World Wildlife Fund, Green Peace, and Invisible Dust UK for Climate Change.