Ziliang Liu

Areas of Expertise

Ziliang (Alex) Liu is an art historian of early imperial Chinese art and architecture, focusing on issues of materiality, the intersection of art and technical knowledge, and the relationship between art and the body in early China. Liu graduated with a PhD in art history from Harvard University and is currently completing a book project that examines how understanding of materials shaped art in the Western Han (206 BCE–9 CE), bringing together discourses in ancient Chinese metaphysics, theories of alchemy and medicine, as well as new discoveries in conservation science.

Liu was the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College and the Ittleson Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art. His research has also been supported by the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies in Kyoto, Japan, the David D. Rockefeller Fund, the Victor and William Fung Foundation, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, among others. Liu has held curatorial and research positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Harvard Art Museums.