Tiffanyliu

Born: 1981, Taipei, Taiwan. Education: 2005 Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA, BA

Written by: David Rive


A confessed exemplar of the Peter Pan Syndrome, and happily ensconced in a personal “Never-Neverland,” Liu has never lost her childlike spirit. The artist estimates that approximately 50% of her waking existence has been spent in “one big daydream.” Liu’s work reflects the visions and fantasies of her imagination. Her canvas is her playground. A wash in rainbow hues and populated with a veritable circus of cute (and freaky) creatures, her candy-colored acrylic paintings are at once strangely familiar (they reference the visual style of vintage storybooks, board game graphics, and nursery décor), and oddly jarring in their often audacious and mysterious subject matter. Liu’s are booby-trapped images wherein things are seldom as they seem, and there are often disturbing—and disturbingly humorous—complexities lying just below their colorful surfaces.

Tiffany has been teaching art to small children for over 10 years. These youngsters have given her great insight to the narrative themes of her paintings. Her Fine Art and Pop influences include Surrealism, Gothic Art, Folk Art, and vintage Little Golden Books, but she feels her greatest inspiration comes from her students. “A child’s perception of the world is a great thing,” says Liu. “When they draw they interact within their drawings like an organic, growing story. They follow their gut instincts, with a no-holds-barred uninhibited approach to art-making.”She continues, “They sometimes don’t even consider their work ‘art;’ for them, it’s a lot more like playtime. I am fascinated by their development; not only on an aesthetic level, but also on a subconscious psychological level. When they draw it’s this big rainstorm of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. They are my little heroes.”

Liu’s vision of childhood reflects a reality in which things often go awry—but in the most playful and colorful way. If some works hint at sexual awakening tinged with corruption and consumption, others treat themes of a search for love with sweet subtlety, humor and mystery. Liu’s non-stop visual invention and the fecundity of her imagination are staggering. She fills her paintings with visual puns, and even double-puns. The magical, floating, colorful artistic world of Tiffany Liu is one you’ll want to visit again and again.