05/28/2026
The UW Art Museum proudly presents: "Artist & Museum: Hung Liu"
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"Dorothea Lange has been one of my heroes. You can see artist, but also eye-witness. She used her camera to capture the great depression, the worst living conditions. No food, no shelter, no place to go. She had compassion" - Hung Liu, excerpt from "Hung Liu: American Exodus," available on our YouTube channel at our link in bio.
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Chinese-born American painter Hung Liu (1948–2021) transformed historical photographs into richly layered paintings that move between history and memory. Working from archival images—often of overlooked or marginalized individuals—Liu developed a painterly language of washes and drips that both preserve and dissolve the image.
The UW Art Museum shared a lasting relationship with the artist through two exhibitions: "The Vanishing: Re-presenting the Chinese in the American West" (2006) and "Hung Liu: American Exodus" (2017). Across multiple visits to Laramie, Liu engaged with students, faculty, and the broader community through lectures, workshops, and conversations.
Drawing from photographs housed in the American Heritage Center for "The Vanishing" and the Dust Bowl-era images of Dorothea Lange for "American Exodus," Liu explored themes of displacement, resilience, identity, and memory.
Presented as part of the museum’s collection framework, this installation reflects how works of art enter the collection through sustained relationships shaped by exhibitions, research, and ongoing collaboration between artist and museum.
