Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Piano Duet, solo exhibition by Pixy Liao. Installation view at L21 Barcelona, 2022.
Pixy Liao
Forefinger, 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
Feet on Cross, 2021
Digital Print
75 x 100 cm
Pixy Liao
Shoulder (I sandwich your shoulder like a piece
of butter), 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
Two Hands, 2021
Digital Print
75 x 100 cm
Pixy Liao
Fmin9, 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
F#Maj on EMaj, 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
Man on a Swing, 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
I push You, 2021
Digital Print
37.5 x 50 cm
Pixy Liao
The Man Hiding in My Dress
Digital Print
112 x 150 cm
Ebony and ivory live together in perfect
harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why don’t we? – Paul McCartney
Since 2007, the artist Pixy Liao plays, experiments and portrays her relationship with her partner Moro, 5 years younger than her and of Japanese nationality. Although she has been living in New York for years, she grew up in China where she felt the pressure that the “right thing” was to be with someone older than her and to follow the norms around heterosexual relationships. As soon as she realized that her story with Moro defied certain conventions and, in some way, empowered her, she started the “Experimental Relationship” project, which has been evolving for years alongside her relationship with her partner.
The photographs exhibited in Pixy Liao’s first solo exhibition at L21 Gallery are from the year 2021 and were created during the pandemic. During those months the couple traveled to cities near New York and in one of the places where they stayed there was a piano. The instrument was the trigger for the series of photographs “Piano Duets”. As the artist explains, there is a parallel between these images of four-hand chords and a couple living together: you need to be listening to each other all the time and be at the same level of focus and positivity to play the notes beautifully together.
In addition to being visually beautiful, looking at these photographs where an instrument is being played stimulates us to imagine sounds, albeit subliminally. In this way, the sense of sight is no longer the only one that intervenes, allowing emotions to arise from remote places. In fact, Pixy Liao’s photographs often evoke senses such as touch or even taste, which enrich our perception of the images.
Other exhibited works such as “Forefinger” or “I Push You” poetically subvert the power relationship between men and women that is socially internalised. They are disconcerting in a subtle way, but enough to make us see that something challenges us, or even bothers us. This allows us to reflect on stereotypes or our own prejudices around relationships. The “Piano Duet” exhibition invites us to observe the beauty that emerges from the photographs and at the same time listen to our self-talk, which might surprise us.
Florence Rodenstein
EN / ES
Pixy Liao is an artist born and raised in Shanghai, China who currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Memphis in 2008. Her work, although highly personal, is often witty and humorous. Liao uses her photographs, videos and installations to call into question stereotypical contemporary concepts such as the nature of “the couple,” “the artist,” and the “female experience.”
Liao is a recipient of the NYFA Fellowship in Photography, Santo Foundation Individual Artist Awards, Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award, En Foco’s New Works Fellowship and LensCulture Exposure Awards. She has been awarded artist residencies at the University of Arts London, Pioneer Works, Light Work, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Center for Photography at Woodstock, and Camera Club of New York.
Selected solo exhibitions include “Your Gaze Belongs to Me”, Fotografiska, Tallinn, Estonia (2022); “Experimental Relationship (for your eyes only, or maybe mine, too)” Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, Canada (2020); “Two Heads”, Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium (2020); “UNE RELATION EXPÉRIMENTALE”, the Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France (2019). She has participated in group exhibition that took place at PTT Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan; White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; SCOPE Hannover Biennial, Hannover, Germany amongst many others.
Her work can be found in the collections Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung, Franklin Furnace Archive, Møllersamlingen (Møller collection), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Light Work, Syracuse, NY, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.
PIXY LIAO (Shanghai, China)
Resides in Brooklyn, NY (US)
EDUCATION
MFA, Photography, University of Memphis
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Piano Duet. L21 BARCELONA (ES)
Your Gaze Belongs to Me curated by Holly Roussell. Fotografiska, Tallinn (EE)
Futari (Two Persons) curated by Mary Lee Hodgens. Lightwork, Syracuse, NY (US)
2021
Your Gaze Belongs to Me curated by Holly Roussell. Fotografiska, Stockholm (SV)
Your Gaze Belongs to Me curated by Holly Roussell. Fotografiska, New York, NY (US)
2020
Choose Your Own Adventure. SCOPE Hannover Biennial, Hannover, Germany (DEU)
Experimental Relationship (for your eyes only, or maybe mine, too) curated by Henry Lu. Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Vancouver (CA)
Two Heads. Stieglitz 19, Antwerp, Belgium (BEL)
2019
Carry the Weight of You. Galleri Vasli Souza, Oslo (NO)
UNE RELATION EXPÉRIMENTALE. The Rencontres d’Arles, Arles (FR)
Experimental Relationship. FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, Reggio Emilia (IT)
Open Kimono. Chambers Fine Art, New York, NY (US)
2018
Pixy Liao curated by Holly Roussell. Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival, Xiamen (CN)
2017
Lady and Gentleman. Galleri Vasli Souza, Malmö (SV)
2016
Venus as a Boy. Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai (CN)
Some Words Are Just Between Us. First Draft Gallery, Sydney (AUS)
2013
Let’s Make Love. Camera Club of New York, New York (US)
2011
Memphis, Tennessee. Chinese American Art Council, New York (US)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Entre Cajas. L21 Home, Palma (ES)
Bodies & Souls in collaboration with Capsule Shanghai. curated by Manuela Lietti, Cassina Projects, Milan (IT)
L21 Broadcasting from Paris. JPS Gallery, Paris (FR)
2022
I have not loved (enough or worked). Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (AUS)
Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century. Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Michigan (US)
I LOVED YOU. White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney (AUS)
Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity curated by Babara Pollack with Han Hongzheng. Asia Society, New York (US)
CHOSEN FAMILY – LESS ALONE TOGETHER. Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH)
You can call it love. Photolux Festival, Lucca (IT)
Focus on Women Photographers. Foto Wien Festival, Vienna (AUT)
2021
Eating Sugar? No, Papa!. L21 Gallery, Palma Islas Baleares (ES)
The Things I Tell You Will Not Be Wrong. SCOPE Hannover Biennial, Hannover (DEU)
Closer. Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong (HKG)
2020
Propositions for Alternative Narratives. Photoworks Festival, Brighton (UK)
Home Sweet Home. Darmstadt Tage Der Photographie, Darmstadt (DEU)
China Reimagined curated by He Yining and Ruben Lundgren. Breda Photo (NL)
The Body Electric curated by Dr. Shaune Lakin. National Gallery of Australia, Sydney (AUS)
2019
Holly Mosses curated by Nick Yu. Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong (HKG)
Photography in Memphis. Brooks Museum in Memphis (US)
What a Genderful World. Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam (NL)
The Kind Stranger curated by Xiaodong Yan. UNArt Center, Shanghai (CN)
Kinship. Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool (UK)
2018
MUSE MUSE. Czech Center New York, New York (US)
Disobedient Daughters. Metro Arts, Brisbane, Queensland (AUS)
2017
NSFW: FEMALE GAZE. Museum of Sex, in collaboration with Vice’s Creators Project, New York (US)
A New Ballardian Vision curated by Leo Xu. Metro Pictures, New York (US)
2016
Out Frames. Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, Bologna (IT)
When We Become Us. Capsule Shanghai, Shanghai (CN)
Bagsim. chi K11 Art Museum in Shanghai, Shanghai (CN)
WECHAT – A Dialogue in Contemporary Chinese Art curated by Barbara Pollack. Asia Society Texas Center, Houston (US)
The Real Thing. Flowers Gallery, New York, NY (US)
2015
No Holds Barred—Young Contemporary Art from China curated by Boyi Feng and Lars Jonnson. OPEN ART Biennial, Örebro (SWE)
2014
Double Vision curated by Boyi Feng. He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen (CN)
2012
Span of Vision. VT Gallery, Taipei (CN)
2010
Making the Leap: Crossing Borders. A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (US)
Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don’t Make Work About Being Asian. Arario Gallery, New York, NY (US)
ART FAIRS
2023
CAN ART IBIZA 2023. L21 Gallery, Ibiza (ES)
ARCO 23. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)
2021
ARCO 21. L21 Gallery, Madrid (ES)
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2019
Artist in residence. SVA RisoLAB, New York, NY (US)
2018
Madame Figaro Women Photographers Award. Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival (FR)
Jury’s Special Mention for Aperture/Paris Photo First PhotoBook Award (FR)
Artist Residency, University of the Arts London in collaboration with NYFA (UK)
2016
Artist Residency. Pioneer Works
2015
Artist Residency. Light Work
2013
Fellowship in photography. New York Foundation for the Arts (US)
Darkroom Residency. Camera Club of New York (US)
2012
New Works Awards Fellowship. En Foco
Artist Residency. LMCC Workspace Residency Program
2010
Artist Residency. Center for Photography at Woodstock
COLLECTION
Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung
Franklin Furnace Archive
He Xiangning Art Museum
Fundación MEDIANOCHE0
Fort Wayne Museum of Arts
Light Work, Syracuse, NY
Memphis International Airport permanent collection
Møllersamlingen (Møller collection)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Kinsey Institute
The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Vontobel Art Collection
White Rabbit Collection
White Villa Collection