An Te Liu’s sculptures take their origins from everyday objects designed to protect and enhance and, through his interventions, are transformed into sensual biomorphic forms that are at once familiar yet uncanny. Working in bronze, ceramic, and steel sculptures his sculptures are often composed and cast from foam packing materials, sports equipment, and other collected relics from the artist’s life. Citing the history of Modernism and its hubristic desire for purity and refinement, Liu’s transgenerational signals of the body and memory mutate and devolve. His works serve as explorations of progress, improvement, and provocations of what it might mean to achieve one’s peak physical form or “optimum condition” through time. A Pulcinella of sculpture, the works proffer multitudes of identities willfully embodying a paradox.
An Te Liu (b. 1967, Tainan, Taiwan) received his Masters in Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles and his BA in Art History at the University of Toronto. Working predominantly within sculpture and installation, Liu’s work has been exhibited in venues including the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, the EVA Biennial of Ireland, the Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His works are included in the permanent collections of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Louis Vuitton Foundation, The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Gallery of Canada and The Art Gallery of Ontario. Liu lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
![This image depicts an artwork by An Te Liu titled "Mola Mola (Verschlimmbesserung I)." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 7" x 6 ¹⁄₂" x 9" [HxWxD] (17.78 x 16.51 x 22.86 cm). Its medium is Glazed earthenware.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/An-Te-Liu_ATL1088_1663188857.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by An Te Liu titled "IO (Verschlimmbesserung III)." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 14" x 6 ¹⁄₂" x 13 ³⁄₄" [HxWxD] (35.56 x 16.51 x 34.93 cm). Its medium is Glazed earthenware.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/An-Te-Liu_ATL1082_1663188898.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by An Te Liu titled "Cactoid I." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 32 ¹⁄₄" x 9" x 4" [HxWxD] (81.92 x 22.86 x 10.16 cm). Its medium is Cast aluminum, dye stain.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/An-Te-Liu_ATL1068_1663188922.jpg)
![This image depicts an artwork by An Te Liu titled "Ergon." This artwork was created in 2022 and measures 22 ³⁄₄" x 9 ³⁄₄" x 21" [HxWxD] (57.79 x 24.77 x 53.34 cm). Its medium is Cast bronze with patina.](https://anatebgi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/An-Te-Liu_ATL1064_1663188926.jpg)
