Cathy Liu lives in San Francisco and on the Big Island of Hawaii where she’s constantly inspired by the fragility and force of life. She grew up in an area of San Jose where the cherry orchards were replaced by Eichler homes. She left suburbia for Florence, Italy where she graduated with a B.A. in Italian Studies and met her husband, Architect Craig Steely. She worked for muckraking Mother Jones Magazine, but after five years she found painting amoebic shapes preferable to raking muck.
Artist Statement: “My abstract organic paintings are a playful meditation on life––how we’re interconnected with everyone and everything, yet uniquely shaped and part of a vibrant dynamic whole. Originally, the organic shapes flowed naturally from the wood grain of my first plywood paintings. The discarded wood scraps were a physical reminder of being a small part of the whole. My canvas paintings similarly elaborate upon the idea that only part of the picture is visible. The canvases are painted beyond the borders with the images extending out over the edges. In order to get a true sense of the paintings, they must be viewed in person. After many years of canvas paintings, I returned to nature, finding driftwood and rocks to paint––again, just little pieces of a majestic, only imaginable, whole.”
Contact
Cathy Liu
8 Beaver Street
San Francisco, California 94114 USA Galleries/Shows
Galleries/Shows
- de Young Museum, San Francisco, October 10, 2020 thru January, 3 2021
- Wescover unique designs, Worldwide
- Matarozzi Pelsinger, 355 11th St. San Francisco, October 11, 2018
- Glama Rama, San Francisco, April 2014
- Louie-Meager Art Gallery, Fremont, November 2012
- Shibumi Gallery, San Francisco, October 2009
- EBMUD, Oakland, April 2009
- Mollusk Surf Shop, San Francisco, October 2008
- Aftermodern, San Francisco, February 2007
- Design Within Reach, Berkeley, August 2006
- Applegate Art Gallery, Santa Monica, April 2006
- Applegate Art Gallery, Malibu, October 2004
- Friend SF, San Francisco, August 2004
- Shibumi Gallery, San Francisco, December 2002
- Cowboys & Angels, San Francisco, September 2002
- Van Go Gallery, Sacramento, July 2002
- Glama Rama, San Francisco, July 2001
- LIMN, San Francisco, October 2000
- www.NextMonet.com, June 2000–May 2004
- Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, May 2000
- ATA, San Francisco, April 1999
- Space, San Francisco, October 1997
