Ink Painting: Poetic Interpretations
This workshop, led by Sam Fox School MFA student Virginia Liu, draws inspiration from drip, drip, drip, by Wangechi Mutu in Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection. Mutu’s artwork blends social critique with poetic allegory and a sensuous exploration of form, color, and pattern.
Participants will learn fundamental ink painting techniques, including brushwork, ink-and-water balance, and texture creation. They will then be guided in creating their own expressive responses, starting with traditional ink. The workshop will encourage participants to discover how contemporary art can inspire new and personal interpretations.
For ages 14 and up.
About the Facilitator:
Virginia Liu was born and raised in Guangzhou, China, and relocated to Texas as a teenager. She earned her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently pursuing an MFA at WashU. Her practice examines identity, personal history, and cultural displacement within a globalized world, drawing on Oriental legends, folklore, ornamentation, and contemporary culture.
Integrating elements of traditional Eastern art with contemporary Western aesthetics, Liu investigates how cultural hybridity shapes notions of belonging. She is particularly interested in the ways individuals move between cultural systems, carrying fragmented memories that are visually reconstructed in unfamiliar settings. Her imagery often feels simultaneously recognizable and estranged—like memories tethered to two places at once.
Through vibrant, layered compositions featuring symbolic objects, Liu offers a distinctive commentary on the convergence of Eastern and Western aesthetics, highlighting both the playfulness and complexities of contemporary cultural identity.