Livien Yin: Thirsty

Livien Yin: Thirsty is the first museum solo exhibition of the work of Brooklyn-based artist Livien Yin, a 2019 Stanford MFA. This single-gallery exhibition showcases new and recent paintings by Yin and their sensitive, researched-based approach to creating scenes of contemporary subjects alongside historical Asian Americans and their environments. In their paintings, Yin often casts their friends as models, collapsing the distance between the past and present to create new connective threads between Asian Americans across generations.

Yin’s recent paintings are fictional scenes inspired by the Chinese-born “paper sons and daughters” who entered the U.S. during the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882–1943) by obtaining forged documents that stated they were children of American citizens. The artist draws from historic photographs of Chinese immigrants and stages imagined vignettes in the absence of visual records, using the gaps in these archival sources as fertile ground to envision possible realities.

Livien Yin: Thirsty is curated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Co-director of the Asian American Art Initiative at the Cantor Arts Center, with Kathryn Cua, curatorial assistant for the Asian American Art Initiative.

We gratefully acknowledge major support for Livien Yin: Thirsty provided by Pamela and David Hornik. Sustained support generously provided by the Halperin Exhibitions Fund.