Upon entering the exhibition, you are greeted by pieces of various sizes and mediums, full of intricacies and exploration. With the pieces being smaller in size, besides the Ferris wheel, you have to get close to see the small details or the depth of space that opens into a world of its own within each piece. Within the works, Liu offers locations such as cities, darkened spaces, carnivals, and other places of transition. Places that one may find themselves when they are beginning to traverse or transition into someplace new. I appreciated that each work was either on the wall or a shelf, giving each a sense of its own place. The space around the pieces gives them an opportunity to breathe and allows viewers to look closely at one and flow seamlessly into the next.
Every work represents a new opportunity to explore. They also carry with them a sense of movement forward, with a prevalent sense of experimentation and wonder, especially in the etching, Untitled (2025), where the carousel horse breaks free from his restraints. A freedom to explore the world. Xinyu Liu explores multiple mediums and modes of idea-making, leading viewers on a journey of creation, one where the discoveries of the artist are fun, whimsical, and enlightening all at once. Shifting between two roles, that of an immigrant and an artist, Liu uses her art to tell her story to viewers and show us how she grows on a journey of discovering new worlds by building one herself.
Using sculpture, painting, drawing, and printmaking, Liu engages in experimentation and the journey of discovery through a new medium, which becomes the main aspect of the work. Being an immigrant, Liu uses her works to illustrate her journey of finding her place in the world she has found herself within, including the art world as well. In this case, the artist is depicted through characters within her works, such as within the wonderfully detailed etchings, a gecko, a spider, or, as shown in the work below titled Small, still Turtle, a tiny, determined turtle. Here we see a little turtle exploring a new space, with a city skyline constantly hovering overhead as it progresses steadily, slowly forward. Carrying its home on its back, its safety and past, the turtle makes its way through obstacles within the world Liu creates to find a new home. Here, the artist is navigating strange new spaces, braving the unknown, and her works take me into the unknown world alongside them.
The Ferris wheel piece titled Fool’s Hour is very intriguing as both a centerpiece of the show and a motor in the show’s engine. Reminiscent of a clock, made of plastic acrylic parts fitted together, Liu’s motorized Ferris wheel goes nowhere. The movement is insinuated and is no longer there in real time, but the shadow it casts remains steady. An intricate shape depicting the bones and foundations of the piece. By making a wheel that does not move as expected, Liu is playing with the idea of an alternate world, a place where time may stop, and where what we expect from life may not be exactly what we get. Here we become similar to the symbolic figure of the Fool, perhaps believing life is predictable, time always moving forward like a wheel, but instead Liu gives us absurdities and alternatives to take us through the deeper and more complex ideas below the surface.
The exhibition consists of sculptures that are both fabricated and hand-carved, playful drawings in colored pencil, detailed etchings, and mixed media works. All mediums that require a sense of playful exploration and an open mind. Another common thread throughout all the work is a sense of displacement and adventure, one where Liu is not solely focused on a final piece, a final destination per se, but on the knowledge the journey gives her. Like in the wooden box piece titled Time is not lost, it is freed, within every piece, Liu creates a sense of precision, placement, and imagination. Even in the little details, such as the wooden box or the layers and details within the prints, she precisely builds up a world she wants to let us enter. Perhaps it is a world of her imagination, her dreams, or perhaps it is a sense of wonder she carries into the world of today as an artist; either way, it is a world we now have to explore. We have to make our way through pieces and parts, just as much as she must find her way in the world as well.
Two statements within the press release really stuck with me as I explored the exhibition, one was a quote from the Japanese hermit poet, Basho, who wrote: “The journey itself is the home.” And the second was the idea that the turtle carries its house with it wherever it goes. Both fit the show immensely well. Through all of these works, Lui is creating something of a parallel world for us to explore, one where ideas can grow and the unexpected is okay. We carry with us our homes, our histories, our pasts, our inner selves, and it takes courage to make it through the obstacles of a new place, especially one you may not fully understand. Lui uses these pieces to build her world and her place, where making and growing as an artist is just as important as moving forward. Lui’s work is the home that she continues to carry onward, just like the turtle trying to traverse the alleyways of those city streets in that print.
Art Cake, Fool’s Hour: A Solo Exhibition by Xinyu Liu, Studio 10 (Second Floor), April 17 – May 10, 2026, M. David & Co. in partnership with Yellow Chair Salon, Curated by John Yau. Hours: Friday & Saturday, 1-6 pm and by appointment.
About the Writer: Taylor Bielecki lives in Gowanus, where her studio is, and works at Pratt Institute, where she earned her MFA. She also studied at Penn State, where she earned a BA in English and a BFA in Fine Arts. She finished as a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s VSA National Emerging Young Artist program for 2017, where she earned an award of Excellence. She has shown prints internationally in a print exchange in Australia and exhibitions in Dubai, India, and the Glasgow School of Art. She has also shown paintings internationally in Gallery 24N, PhilaMOCA’s juried exhibitions in Philadelphia, Pa., Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack, NY, BWAC in Red Hook, and IW Gallery in Brooklyn. Taylor works for Two Coats of Paint, TUSSLE Magazine, and has joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer. @Taylor.Bielecki