Kathy Liu

Kathy Liu is an Eora/Sydney-based contemporary artist whose intuitive approach to abstract painting invites an enchanting, ethereal and entirely singular mix of fluid and figurative forms. Casting the canvas as a conduit for her adventures through imaginative worlds, Liu’s open-ended process embraces serendipitous possibilities as amorphous pools of abstract colour begin to coalesce and enigmatic, inchoate figures emerge through diaphanous wafts of colour. Suggesting hazy memories, nocturnal musings or half-remembered dreams, the resulting works pulse with poeticism, emotion, a sense of magic and effervescent movement.

“I start my paintings abstractly, thinking of surface, composition, colour, et cetera,” says Liu. “These abstract elements connect with a feeling or bring out a blurry impression, which is quite personal. It’s like there’s an undercurrent behind these abstract elements, so the painting suggests a potential narrative … as if I’m presenting a question without a fixed answer. I am happy without knowing the answer.”

After completing her fine arts studies at the National Art School, Liu captured the attention of our curatorial team as a breakout star among the finalists of the 2023 National Emerging Art Prize. Her shortlisted work was selected as a highlight from the awards program by the editors of Belle and published across a full page in the magazine. After taking part in the group show Abstract at Michael Reid Murrurundi, Liu made her solo debut at the gallery with the widely celebrated Moon Phases. On the strength of these Murrurundi outings, the artist was invited by Michael Reid Beyond program manager Dean Phillips-Andersen to exhibit in the 2024 edition of the annual Painting Now survey show at Michael Reid’s flagship Eora/Sydney gallery.

With her Painting Now series, Liu pushed her practice into more ambitious terrain, scaling her ethereal compositions up to her largest canvases to date. “There could be a tinge of melancholy or menace in these dreamlike scenes,” noted an expansive Belle magazine profile that accompanied the opening of Painting Now. “The ephemerality of childhood amusements is echoed by a gossamer quality that sees fragmentary images on the cusp of emerging or just fading away – an ambiguity that rhymes with Liu’s fluid, freeform approach and the happy accidents of her abstract practice.”

All works from Liu’s Painting Now series immediately found homes with collectors, building major anticipation for her solo debut at Michael Reid Sydney in early 2025. Titled If you wait for long, Liu’s April show was another creative triumph that garnered widespread collector interest in Australia and abroad. We are delighted to welcome Kathy Liu to the Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin stable of represented artists, and we look forward to presenting a suite of works by the artist at Sydney Contemporary 2025.