Press

Review in Art in America!

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Thrilled to share a wonderful review by Diana Seo Hyung Lee. It will also be published in the September 2022 issue of the Art in America Magazine. You can read the full review here: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/ani-liu-cuchifritos-gallery-1234634558/

“Liu is interested in the metaphorical implications of this development: women, who are often politically reduced to vessels for carrying children, and who are then expected to raise those kids through overlooked labor, can produce milk that contains unacknowledged carriers of sustenance for their babies. This is not an affirmation of women as vessels nor an assertion that breast milk is the only right option. It is an exhortation to look more closely not only at the unborn, but also at the women who bear them, without turning away.”

https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/ani-liu-cuchifritos-gallery-1234634558/

Review in Brooklyn Rail

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Very grateful for this wonderful review in the Brooklyn Rail by Helena Haimes. You can read it here:

https://brooklynrail.org/2022/07/artseen/Ani-Liu-Ecologies-of-Care or here as a PDF.

“The exhibition as a whole is uncompromisingly sharp, almost clinically so. There are no images of cute babies or depictions of tender moments, and it all hangs together memorably as a result. Liu presents a stark, uncompromising take on the experience of caring for a young baby.

It’s actually a remarkably brave move—reluctant as I am to describe it that way. I think most artist-parents would be inclined to agree that art-making and parenthood are horribly difficult to reconcile. In 2022, it’s depressing that this labor remains so invisible to so many that Liu’s work has such an impact by ‘exposing’ it. This eloquent show feels as if it’s part of a broader effort to force the realities of caregiving into public consciousness.

I hope it heralds a shift in attitudes, an attempt to carve out some space for these experiences and treat them as worthy of artistic reflection. Motherhood isn’t going anywhere, and the more decent artists treat it as ripe territory for contemplation, the sooner the situation for artist-parents might start to shift for the better.”

—Helena Haimes for The Brooklyn Rail

Feature in MIT Magazine

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Wielding Science and Tech, She Creates Art That Imitates Life

“In her work, Liu seeks to constantly bridge the intellectual with the visceral and the emotional. The potent combination can shift viewers’ perceptions of what is real—and what is possible.”

You can read it here: https://alum.mit.edu/slice/wielding-science-and-tech-she-creates-art-imitates-life

Winner of the Biological Art & Design Award

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Excited to announce that I have won the Biological Art and Design Award this year!  I will be using the €25,000 award to create new work in collaboration with experts in Radiology.  More details from the site below: 

http://www.badaward.nl/news/winners-bad-award-2018-en

Ani Liu (USA): ‘Data Veins & Flesh Voxels: a search for what is Human’
In collaboration with: Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam, Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, division of Musculoskeletal Radiology (Matthias Cabri, Onno Baur, Mario Maas)

This project works to translate social, physical, and even emotional data into new kinds of artistic representation. It proposes doing so in a legible way that still preserves the complexity and immensity of an identity. In this case, the jury also detected a strong cooperative spirit and mutual respect between the designer and the scientific team. In fact, they were even able to acknowledge an early shift in perspective on the part of the researchers, who, through the process of the application development, have arrived at a slightly more empathy-informed approach to patients. Another factor that impressed the jury was the thoughtful contextualization that Ani Liu offered in the first part of the application presentation, illuminating how the way we understand ourselves through the ages is based on the dominant technologies of the time.

Jury Captain for Core77 Design Concept Awards

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I am pleased to announce that I am serving as the Jury Captain in for the Core77 Design Concept Awards this year.   

The design concept category includes all conceptual or proposal designs, whether self-initiated or created for a client or educational institution, which have been fully developed, but not yet brought to market or made available for pre-order. Due to the conceptual nature of the category, effective writing and visuals are critical, and entries should be fully described and illustrated to clarify the intent as much as possible.

I deeply encourage everyone to apply!  http://designawards.core77.com/

Rhapsody in Zero G: Reimagining research for life in space

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I had the pleasure of participating in the inaugural Zero Gravity flight of the Space Initiative at MIT Media Lab.  My research was a speculative design object for the emotional strains of future space travel.  You can read the full article here: https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/rhapsody-in-zero-g/

"The projects aboard the flight all represent potentially groundbreaking research; they’ll go on to become peer-reviewed research, models for further iterations, and/or design challenges for others to explore. But the meta goal of this flight speaks to something beyond specific projects and results: it speaks to the broader implications of humanity’s efforts in and around space... Ani Liu created Smells for Space, a project playing with how scent might help spacefarers stay connected to places and people on Earth."

Featured in Dartmouth Alumni Magazine

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https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/perception-extension

https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/perception-extension

"She blends art with science, technology and politics to explore what it means to be human in an increasingly virtual world. “I bring very disparate ideas together to reveal aspects about how technology frames our reality,” says Liu"

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