The space at Florit/Florit is not a neutral container. It has never been.
Pixy Liao’s Experimental Relationship opens a space where the boundary between lived experience and performance is never fully fixed. Developed over nearly two decades, the series unfolds as an ongoing exploration of intimacy and power through self-portraits of the artist and her partner, Moro. What begins as a personal investigation extends beyond the relationship itself. The images are not documentary, but staged. Their bodies become both subject and material, as the distinction blurs into a site of play and testing.
Always Keep an Eye on the One You Love presents a selection of works from this ongoing series. Shot across two distinct spaces—the former apartment of Chicago mobster “Joey the Clown” and a secluded cabin in Beacon—Liao and Moro move between a dense, enclosed atmosphere and a more open, subdued one, as each setting shapes the encounter.
A fine line between care and control runs through the work. Gestures of attention can turn into vigilance. What appears tender may also constrain. Domestic scenes are charged with both suspense and tenderness, edged with a dry, understated humour.
In this constellation of images, each proposes a temporary configuration in which positions are reversed or suspended. In Head-Hiding Haven, the first impression suggests eroticism, but on closer attention their gestures oscillate between refuge and confinement. In Slow Dance, bodies move in close synchrony, a moment of shared trust and closeness. In Doll Up, the logic of play becomes more explicit: they appear dressed, arranged as objects, equally given over to the staging.
What emerges is not a stable image of the couple, but a shifting set of possibilities. Intimacy is closely examined, revealing the assumptions that shape it. Liao’s work does not resolve into a fixed meaning, but keeps the dynamics of care and control in love moving between tension, tenderness, and humour.
–Madi Canals
Pixy Liao is an artist born and raised in Shanghai, China who currently resides in Tokyo. She holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Memphis in 2008. Her work, although highly personal, is often witty and humorous. Liao uses her photographs, videos and installations to call into question stereotypical contemporary concepts such as the nature of “the couple,” “the artist,” and the “female experience.”
Liao is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (2026) and the NYFA Fellowship in Photography, among other awards. She has also participated in artist residencies including Light Work and Pioneer Works.
Selected solo exhibitions include the Art Institute of Chicago (2025); Fotografiska, New York/Stockholm/Tallinn (2021–22); Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2020); and Rencontres d’Arles (2019). Her work has been presented in group exhibitions at institutions such as White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Fotomuseum Winterthur, and SCOPE Hannover Biennial.
Her work is held in public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung.
