Pat Steir

Pat Steir

Nothing, 1974, oil on canvas

August Waterfall, 2000, photogravure and aquatint

Pat Steir is a painter and printmaker who works with abstracted landscapes.

Formally, she works on a large scale and frequently uses silver, gold, white, and Paynes gray. She puts X's through things which implies a theme of destruction. She says she wanted to destroy images as symbols and that no imagery was the same as endless imagery.

In her waterfall paintings, she pours paint on canvas and allows colors to mix and merge (a wet on wet technique). In her colored abstract paintings, the colors correspond with 5 Buddha families. In fact a lot of her paintings are representative of her interest in Asian, specifically Chinese, art. (The act of paint flowing corresponds to the philosophy of Daoism.)

Hung Liu

Hung Liu

Cherry, 2010, mixed media

Rainmaker, 2011, mixed media on tapestry

Hung Liu studied mural painting in Beijing. She includes Chinese history in nearly all of her paintings.

She shows images of refugees, women, and children- references of anonymous Chinese historical photographs. Heavy use of metaphor for the loss of memory and traditional Chinese symbolism.

Formally she uses linseed oil to make the painting look drippy/obviously referential of paint itself. This is a GREAT example of space and place! She uses mixed media on panel, canvas, or tapestry.  Mixed media breaks figure/background planes.