Diana Lui


Diana Lui is a Franco-Belgian artist, photographer and filmmaker of Chinese origin. :fr:Diana Lui|Diana Lui is best known for her large format photographic portraits of today's growing hybrid generation of multicultural and multiethnic individuals.
Diana Lui was born in Malaysia and has been based in Paris for more than 10 years. She graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1992. A master with the 8×10 inch view camera, Diana Lui develops long term photographic and artistic projects over several years. Intimate Portraits, what Lui calls "intimate/psychological/anthropological portraits on today’s hybrid generation of new nomads who have lost their roots and origins due to the onslaught of globalism" was initiated 20 years ago and continues to develop to this day. Lui’s silent portraits show the existential urgency of each individual’s existence through the space or objects surrounding him/her, the intrinsic gestures and physical positioning of the individual within his/her environment. With this constantly evolving series, she has won several awards including France’s 20th Bourse du Talent and the Prix Kodak de la Critique Photographique, Belgium’s Prix National de la Photographie Ouverte du Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi and was in 2008 a finalist for the Prix de la Fondation HSBC pour la Photographie.

Background

Diana Lui’s interest in different art forms is due to her early education in the arts in Malaysia ranging from Chinese ink painting to the performance arts such as ballet and contemporary dance. Her studies in the fine arts in UCLA were guided by teachers who were prominent artists of the 1960s Post-Modernist period such as Robert Heinecken and Jan Stüssy. In UCLA, Lui experimented with drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting and photography. She further deepened her art studies at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Her graduation project combined printing processes such as photogravure and platinum/palladium printing in order to create subtle black and white portraits taken with an 8x10 inch view camera. Lui was able to successfully master these alternative printing processes thanks to her teacher Anthony Zepeda, Los Angeles master printmaker, a former printer of Rauschenberg's. Though photography has predominated her work, her recent projects have evolved into new themes that push the limits of photography by combining installation, performance, experimental short films, painting and drawing. Lui’s transient life between three different continents has developed in her a heightened sense of "rootlessness", loss of origins and traditional values. This "rootlessness" has become the center from which her art and research has taken shape.

Exhibitions

Diana Lui has won several prestigious awards and exhibited her photographs and art work in solo and group exhibits in the USA, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Belgium, Paris, Germany, Italy, Estonia, London, Morocco, Mexico, and Venezuela.
2013
2012
  • The Feminine Beyond, , Ljubljana, Slovenia - a photographic exploration of the feminine identity using two contrasting subjects: the nude and the veiled
  • , Tour et Taxi - Galerie 127, Marrakech
  • Dali International Photography Exhibition, Yunnan Province, China
  • - Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana
2011
  • The Essential Veil – II, French Institute, Fez, Morocco - photos & on site installation, continuing series on the semantics of veiled and traditional costumes in Morocco
  • Paris Photo, Grand Palais – Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana - presentation of 2 portfolios edited by Editions Chez Higgins, Les Méduses and Chez Robert Frank
  • Fotofever, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris – Galerie 127, Marrakech
  • Marrakech Art Fair, Palace Es Saadi, Morocco – Galerie 127, Marrakech
2010
  • Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre – Galerija Fotografija
  • Marrakech Art Fair, Palace Es Saadi, Morocco – Galerie 127
  • The Essential Veil, Galerie 127, Marrakech – photo, video & installation exhibition, research on traditional Moroccan costumes
  • Pur-Sang, Château Maisons-Laffitte – photos & installation, catalogue 75 pages, Editions Filigranes, Paris
  • Infinite River - Sentier du Rhône, Rochemaure, France – artist residence and outdoor installation, a reclining 15-meter long wavy mirror built at the entrance of an 18th-century bridge, Pont Rochemaure, in the Ardeche region.
2009
  • Cut 09, Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaisie et Singapour - the photographic body in South East Asia
  • PhotoBeijing 2009, Agricultural Exhibition Center of China, Pekin, Chine - Galerie Lipao Huang, with photographers Klavdij Sluban, Marc Riboud, Patrick Robert et Wu Jialin
  • Paris Pékin, Galerie Lipao Huang, Paris - with Marc Riboud & Klavdij Sluban
  • Salon Art Show & Festival AVIFF, Cannes, France - short film Four Play in competition
  • Photographe sous influences, Galerie Sponte, Paris, France - photography exhibit
2008
  • Another Voice, We..., Shanghai Art Museum, China - first major exhibition by women artists in the museum, exhibition on the woman's place in the globalized world today - 12 contemporary women artists from China, Russia, Japan, France, Germany - photos, installation, video
  • Femmes, Arbres et Hommes, Galerie Sinitude, Paris, France - photography exhibit
  • Huachen Auctions, Beijing, China
  • ArtBeijing Fair, Chine
2007
  • Cities of the Immortals, Guangdong Museum of Art, China - photography exhibition
  • Merimetsan Alchemy, HOP gallery, Estonia - photo & installation, collaboration with fashion researcher Otto Von Busch from Göteberg University, Sweden and Estonian artist Sirja-Liisa Vahtra combining art, design, and therapy inside a rehabilitation center in Tallinn, Estonia
  • Le Conservatoire du Cap Corse, Canari - commissioned series of portraits of Corsicans with costumes from the 18th century - permanent exhibition
  • ArtCurial, Paris
  • Sex Market, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia - exhibition by Estonian and international artists addressing prostitution in Eastern Europe, curated by Reet Varblane - photography exhibit
  • Festival DesignMai, Berlin - photography exhibit of portraits of the world's most interesting designers
2006
  • Trees, Individuals & Sexuality, Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana, Slovenia - supported by the French Institute Charles Nodier - photography exhibit
  • Trees, Individuals, & Sexuality, Aura Gallery, Shanghai, China - photography exhibit
  • Chance, Agnès B., London - photography exhibit organized by London art magazine "Chance"
  • Lianzhou International Photo Festival, China
  • Blurred Certainty, Jerwood Space, London - photography exhibit
  • 15ème Prix National de Photographie, Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi, Belgium - photography exhibit of winners of the competition
2005
2004
  • Sensaciones, Fototeca de Monterrey, Mexico - photography and short films - with the support of the Alliance Française in Monterrey
  • Millenium Museum for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China - exposition photo
2003
  • Portraits Intimes, Galerie Cathay, Paris - photography exhibit
  • 3rd Ping Yao International Photography Festival in China
1998-2002
  • press photographer in Paris for ART & AUCTION, NOVA, L’EXPRESS, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR
1996
  • Notices The Gallery, Singapour - black and white photography from Malaysian and Singaporean contemporary photographers
  • Art Photography in Malaysia today, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaisie - first photography exhibition in a major national museum in Malaysia
1995
  • Eroticism in Landscape - 4th National Sutra Dance Festival - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - exhibition exploring the subject of eroticism by women photographers from Malaysia
  • American Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium - portraits in platinum/palladium by contemporary American and European photographers
1994
  • Photographie nouvelle de Belgique - Brussels, Belgium - photography exhibit organized by l'Association Arrêt sur l'Image
1992
  • Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California - portraits in platinum/palladium
1991
1990
  • Eros & Thanatos, UCLA Kerckhoff Art Gallery, University California of Los Angeles, USA - watercolor, pastel, photography and sketches in charcoal
1989'''
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