Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Pixy Liao is an artist currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
She is a recipient of NYFA Fellowship, En Foco’s New Works Photography Fellowship and was a winner of Flash Forward Award (Canada), CPW Photography Now and Hey, Hot Shot, etc,. She was a Honorable Mentionee of New York Photo Awards at New York Photo Festival and a finalist of ITS Photo Award (Italy). Liao is currently a darkroom resident at Camera Club of New York. She has done artist residencies at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace program and Woodstock AIR program at CPW. Liao’s photographs have been exhibited internationally, including Arario Gallery (NY), kunst licht Gallery (China), VT Artsalon (Taiwan), Kips Gallery (Korea), The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space (Lebanon), NordArt (Germany), Pingyao International Photography Fest (China), Lianzhou International Photography Fest (China), etc.
Liao holds a MFA in photography from University of Memphis.
About ‘Experimental Relationship’:
As a woman brought up in China, I used to think I could only love someone who is older and more mature than me, who can be my protector and mentor. Then I met my current boyfriend, Moro. Since he is 5 years younger than me, I felt that whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around. I became the person who has more authority & power. One of my male friends even questioned how I could choose a boyfriend the way a man would choose a girlfriend. And I thought, “Damn right. That’s exactly what I’m doing, & why not!”
I started to experiment with this relationship. I would set up all kinds of situations for Moro and I to perform in the photos. My photos explore the alternative possibilities of heterosexual relationships. They question what is the norm of heterosexual relationships. What will happen if man & woman exchange their roles of sex & roles of power. Because my boyfriend is Japanese, and I am Chinese, this project also describes a love and hate relationship.
This project is an ongoing project which grows with our real relationship but is never meant to be a documentation.
