Hung Liu: Secret Freedom

Dec. 12, 2026 – July 3, 2027

Groundbreaking Chinese American artist Hung Liu (1948–2021) came of age under Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, when artistic expression was tightly controlled and painting outside official doctrine carried real risk. Featuring approximately 75 works—including the first public presentation of paintings Liu created secretly in the Mogao caves at Dunhuang in 1980—the exhibition reveals how, in the face of political repression, she built an artistic practice in China, then immigrated to the United States in 1984, where she transformed those formative experiences into the distinctive visual language that would define one of the most influential artistic careers of the past half century. Through documentary photographs, hidden sketchbooks, the rarely exhibited Secret Freedom series of miniature paintings (1972–1975), archival materials, and major paintings from the Hung Liu Estate and Los Angeles collections, the exhibition uncovers the origins of an artist whose work transformed personal memory into a powerful meditation on history, freedom, and creative survival.

This exhibition is curated by Dorothy Moss, founding director of the Hung Liu Estate.

Support for Hung Liu: Secret Freedom is provided by the Dr. William W.M. Lo Chinese Art Gallery Endowment, the Rhoda M. Lo Memorial Fund, and an anonymous donor.