Xin Liu

Xin Liu (b. Xinjiang) London-based artist and engineer.

Liu’s practice examines the entropic process of technological and scientific aspiration, focusing on exhaust as the generative state: rocket fragments falling back to Earth, cryogenic vessels suspending organic matter, genomic code rendered as unreadable scripture, plastics dissolving under enzymatic digestion, satellites logging their own obsolescence.

Taken together, Liu’s works form a constellation of metabolic worlds — a research trajectory she calls Cosmic Metabolism.

Liu is an artist-in-residence at SETI Institute, a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech (2024-25) and the founding Arts Curator in the Space Exploration Initiative at MIT Media Lab. She currently leads creative and culture at Episteme, a new science research institute. Her recent solo exhibitions include EXHAUST, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist (2026); The Permanent and the Insatiable, Management Gallery, New York (2025); At End of Everything, Artpace, San Antonio (2023); Seedlings and Offsprings, Pioneer Works, New York (2023); Self Devourer, Make Room, Los Angeles (2022). In 2024, she participated in Rhizome’s flagship program. In 2026, she presented NOAA: A Fall Towards Home, a performance commissioned by High Line Art and co-produced with Onassis ONX, on the High Line, New York.

Liu has been commissioned by institutions including High Line Art, Hyundai Artlab, Moody Center for the Arts, Artnet, BMW Culture Group, M+ Museum, Ars Electronica, Rhizome, and Onassis Foundation. Her works have been exhibited at the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, Thailand Biennale, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston; Public Gallery, London; Asia Society Texas Center, Houston; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Benton Museum of Art, Claremont; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; Science Gallery London; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; MoMA PS1, New York; MAXXI, Rome and Sundance Film Festival.

Liu is the recipient of the Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award, inaugural K11 Artist Prize, Porches Chinese Young Artist of the Year 2021, Forbes 30 under 30 Asia, X Museum Triennial Award, the Van Lier Fellowship from the Museum of Arts and Design, Sundance New Frontier Story Lab fellowship, Europe ARTificial Intelligence Lab residency with Ars Electronica, SXSW Interactive Innovation Award, Core 77 Interaction Design Award, Fast Company Innovation by Design Award. Recent residencies include Delfina Foundation (2025), Somerset House (2024 - present) , Rice University, Houston (2024); and Artpace, San Antonio (2023). Silver Arts Projects (2021), New INC (2018-2020), , Queens Museum (2018-2020), Watermill Center (2019).

Liu has led and successfully launched two International Space Station payloads and one sub-orbital flight payload onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard system, and flown three parabolic flights.

Liu graduated from MIT Media Lab with a master's in Media Arts and Sciences after her M.F.A from Rhode Island School of Design and a B.E from Tsinghua University in Beijing (Measurement, Control Technology, and Instrument).