Event: Wenying Liu – Into Art: A Photographic Deconstruction
Opening Reception: May 10, 2019, Friday
Time: 4:30-7:30PM
Venue: 79 New Montgomery

“I like to be as free as a bird flying high above the sky seeing the world.”

For MFA Photography alum Wenying Liu, finding her way to photography did not come easy. It was a journey that she had to go through, all the way from a small village in the province of Shan Xi, China.

Lost & Found

After earning her Music Education degree, she moved to the United States to forge a new path for herself. Thinking that becoming a successful entrepreneur is the right path for her, she went to California State University at Northridge for her MBA.

Armed only with her music degree, and with absolutely no background or knowledge in finance or accounting, however, she found herself struggling, crying to her father in overseas calls. She was lost. His advice to her was simple but sincere: follow your heart and your subconscious will tell you what to do.

One day, she picked up a friend’s camera and “fired the very first shoot of my life.”

From there, she knew she had found the path she was meant to take. And take it she did. In 2014, she enrolled in Academy of Art‘s School of Photography, and then earned her degree in 2017.

I dreamed pictures would change the world. I shared my feelings with my father. “Just go for it,” was my father’s advice. When you have a decision, no matter good or bad, you must go for it with all your heart and be responsible for it!

Wenying Liu

Into Art, Into the Artist’s Space

Into Art: A Photographic Deconstruction, is just the latest milestone in her journey as a professional photographer. For this exhibit, Wenying chose contemporary Bay Area senior artists as subjects, capturing them merging with their artworks and creative environments.

For her, being able to work closely with the artists and listen to their life stories allowed her to “capture their personalities in an environment emblematic of my understanding of their narratives.”

Wenying Liu’s Into Art: A Photographic Deconstruction opens at the 79 New Montgomery Gallery on May 10, 4:30-7:30PM.