BIO


Youran Liu (b. 1996, Wuhan, China) lives and works in London, where she is studying Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art (2025–2027). Prior to this, she completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fine Arts in Oil Painting at the China Academy of Art between 2014 and 2021. During this period, she also undertook an artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

Liu is primarily represented by Tang Contemporary Art in Asia and held her solo exhibition, The Body of Cybele, at the gallery’s Bangkok space in 2023. Her work has also been presented at major international art fairs, including The Armory Show in New York, Art Basel Hong Kong, and ART021 Shanghai. Her exhibition history spans key art centres such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and London.

Liu’s painting practice seeks to deconstruct representations of women across different traditional narratives, exploring the boundaries of female identity. Rooted in personal experience and perspectives while engaging with broader social and cultural contexts, her work draws inspiration from diverse sources, including folklore, fairy tales, and mysticism across cultures. Through an ongoing dialogue between Eastern aesthetic traditions and contemporary visual languages, she continues to expand the expressive possibilities of painting as a medium. In her recent work, she has further explored the relationship between the transformation of natural energies and painterly language, approaching painting as a space for spiritual exploration and a means of engaging in dialogue with cosmic forces.


ARTIST STATEMENT


My artistic practice centres on the deconstruction of traditional representations of women, a process I regard as an ongoing exploration of the self and the construction of identity. In my earlier work, I was initially drawn to certain commonalities in the ways different cultures have imagined and represented the figure of the ‘goddess’. I became interested in how these sacred female figures were, on the one hand, worshipped and idealised, while on the other, continually subjected to social projections and shaped by established cultural structures. Through questioning and deconstructing these traditional paradigms, I began to reimagine these female archetypes, placing them within enclosed, intimate, and surreal spaces, where they gradually came to embody a contradictory state in which the divine and the human coexist.

Since moving to London, changes in my surroundings and personal experiences have gradually led my practice towards another side of these archetypes. I have become increasingly interested in female figures historically associated with danger, chaos, or aggression—witches, supernatural beings, mediums, and others. Compared with idealised sacred figures, these characters seem to me more complex and closer to a primordial, untamed spiritual force. They embody both a collective fear of the unknown and the uncontrollable, and an ancient desire to establish connections with nature, the spirit world, and invisible cosmic energies.

This fascination with feminine mysticism and primal energies has also gradually extended into my exploration of folklore and the body itself. In my recent work, I have begun to intertwine traditional Chinese tales of the supernatural—such as those featuring fox spirits—with British woodland folklore, creating new narrative relationships between them. These female figures have often been demonised for their beauty, intelligence, sensual allure, and unpredictability, yet I see precisely these mysterious qualities as the source of their power. Through painting, I seek to reconsider these historically misunderstood female presences and reimagine them from a more fluid and spiritually attuned perspective.

Naked bodies are a recurring element in my practice, although their presence is not intend to be erotic. For me, once the body is free from clothing and the layers of social identity, it becomes the most direct connection between humanity and nature, a state of being that transcends particular cultures and historical periods. Alongside this central narrative, I have also begun developing a parallel series of work that deliberately moves away from human figures. Drawing instead on natural elements such as animals and plants, these paintings imagine and depict bodily metamorphosis, the transformation of energies, and activities beyond the material world.

In terms of visual language, my work is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese art, ancient murals, and the aesthetics of early animation. Through highly saturated colours, curvilinear forms, and fluid spatial structures, I construct visual environments detached from fixed coordinates of time and geography. I hope my paintings can remain in a state of continuous transformation, as though suspended somewhere between memory, dreams, and ritual.

This ambiguity between the human and the divine also informs my approach to the scale of the figures I paint. They are often depicted slightly larger than life, appearing at once familiar and somehow beyond reality. I do not wish them to become distant deities demanding worship. Rather, I believe that divinity already resides within nature, the body, and life itself. Human creation leaves behind the traces of civilisation, yet to me, nature, the physical body, and invisible spiritual forces remain more romantic and sacred forms of existence.
Naked bodies appear repeatedly throughout my practice. For me, the body stripped of clothing and social identity becomes humanity’s most direct connection to nature — a state of existence that transcends specific cultures and time. Alongside these primary narratives, as parallel side- stories, I have also begun creating works that eschew the depiction of the human figure, choosing instead to imagine and portray the transformation of feminine energy, spiritual movement, and material fusion through natural elements such as animals and flora. 

Visually, my work is deeply informed by traditional Chinese art, ancient murals, and the aesthetics of early animation. Through saturated colour, curved forms, and fluid spatial structures, I construct visual environments detached from fixed time or geography. I aim for the paintings to exist within a state of perpetual transformation — something suspended between memory, dream, and ritual. 

This ambiguous state between humanity and divinity also informs my treatment of scale. My figures are often painted slightly larger than life-size, allowing them to feel simultaneously familiar and otherworldly. I do not want them to appear as distant deities to be worshipped. Instead, I believe divinity already exists within nature, the body, and life itself. Human creations leave behind traces of civilisation, but nature, flesh, and unseen spiritual forces remain the true miracles of existence.