Hung Liu
Midsummer, 2012
woodcut with acrylic
23.25 x 23.5 in. (paper: 32.25 x 29.75 in.)
edition of 25

Hung Liu’s Midsummer finds the artist exploring the possibilities of Magnolia Editions’ innovative mixed-media woodcut process, in which passages of acrylic color are layered with precise registration over prints pulled from a wood block matrix carved by a computer-guided laser. Midsummer incorporates Liu’s extraordinary sense of color and lyrical brushwork – not only in the layers of colorful acrylic ink, but also in the texture of the wood block itself, whose rivulet-like vertical incisions provide a unique and compelling analog to the veils of dripping linseed oil that are one of Liu’s signature motifs as a painter.

-Nick Stone