Artist and engineer Xin Liu has been awarded the inaugural K11 Artist Prize, a yearly award given to emerging Asian artists by the K11 Art Foundation, which is run by ARTnews Top 200 collector Adrian Cheng.
Liu’s work spans sculpture, digital art, and film. A curator at MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative with a background in engineering, Liu is one among the cadre of artists who have recently created work dealing with space travel. Her virtual reality video Living Distance (2019), which was on view last summer at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works, features her own wisdom tooth, which she launched into space.
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“Xin is distinguished by an innovative, interdisciplinary practice deeply inspired by her Chinese identity and heritage,” Alia Al-Senussi, chair of the K11 Art Foundation International Council, said in a statement. “Born and raised in Xinjiang, and now based in New York, her work explores and celebrates the perspectives of different contexts and worlds, serving as an important bridge between cultures and communities.”
While the prize comes with no monetary purse, winners will be offered mentorship by the council’s members, including Basma Al Sulaiman, Sarah Arison, and the Cape Town–based A4 Arts Foundation.
The K11 Art Foundation is a nonprofit based in Hong Kong. Since its founding in 2010, the foundation has worked with institutions across the globe, including the Royal Academy of Arts, Serpentine Galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.