Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao was born in Taiwan in 1977 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1999 at the age of 22. There, he immediately took residence in Queens, New York, in close proximity to the 7 subway line, dubbed by the New York City Department of City Planning as the “International Express.” He earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from Pratt Institute. Liao’s renowned Habitat 7 series, for which he received critical acclaim, stemmed from his master’s thesis at SVA. Taken over the course of two years, Liao depicted the ethnic diversity of the communities along the 7 train subway line on its seven-mile route from Manhattan to Flushing.  Liao has won the New York Times Magazine “Capture the Times” photography contest in 2005 with his work from the Habitat 7 series.  After this major debut, Liao extended his perimeters to other areas that show the city as a constantly changing organism.  In 2012, Liao won the Emerging Icon in Photography Award from George Eastman House.

For more than a decade Liao has researched and documented the social landscape and complex chemistry of New York City.  Over the years he has transitioned from large format film to digital photography, perfecting his method of stitching together several exposures to create one continuous panoramic image that vividly reflected the photographer’s observations that day.  Liao has extensively photographed the five boroughs, including projects such as Depth of Fields, Grand Concourse (commissioned by the Bronx Museum of Art), and Coney Island, all of which will be included in his latest solo exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York.

Liao’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and can be found in the permanent collections of several institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; Queens Museum, NY; Brooklyn Museum, NY; J. Paul Getty Museum, LA; George Eastman House-International Museum of Photography and Film, NY; the Norton Museum of Art, FL; JGS Howard Stein Collection, NY; The Pilara Foundation Collection, SF; Allen G. Thomas Jr. Collection, NC; and Deutsche Bank art collection.

His first monograph, Habitat 7, essay by Anne W. Tucker, was published in 2008 by Nazraeli Press, which also published his second monograph, Coney Island, in 2013.  2014 October,  Aperture Foundation published his third monograph, Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: New York, encompassing his work in New York for the past 10 years.

Liao has lectured on his work and process at several institutes, including International Center of Photography, NY; J. Paul Getty Museum, LA, George Eastman House; Kentucky Art Museum; School of Visual Art, NY; Aperture Foundation, NY, and the Museum of the City of New York.

Education

2003  Pratt Institute of Art and Design, Brooklyn, NY B.F.A. Photography

2005  School of Visual Art, New York, NY M.F.A. Photography and Related Media

Selected Exhibitions

Solo show

2021 The Municipal Art Society of New York

2017   24 Solar Terms: Central Park   Michael Foley Gallery

2015   Recent works, Frieze Art Fair New York.  Deutsche Bank's VIP Lounge

2014  “Assembled Realities”, Museum of the City of New York 

2013  New York City Building Time Lapse, 2009 – 2013, Queens Museum of Art.

2013  MTA Arts for Transit: Atlantic Avenue Lightbox project    Greetings from Coney Island.

2012   Widely Different: New York City Panorama,  South Street Seaport Museum (Two-person)

2011  MTA Arts for Transit: Lightbox project    7 X 7: Views Along the 7 Line

2011  Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, NY

2010  Urban Panoramas, J. Paul Getty Museum, CA (Three Person show)

2010  BQMB, Julie Saul Gallery, NY

2010   Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao, Kentucky Art Museum, KY 

2009  Grand Concourse at 100, Bronx Museum of Art, NY  

2009  Habitat 7, Citibank, Long Island City, NY

2008  Habitat 7, Houston Center of Photography, 2008 FOTO FEST, Houston TX

2008  Visions of America, Crane Kalman Brighton, UK

2007  Habitat 7, Bulova Corporate Center, NY

2006  Habitat 7, Queens Museum of Art, NY 

2006  Habitat 7, Julie Saul Gallery, NY

2003  Nature / Nurture, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn, NY  

Group show

2024 Upcoming, Eyes on Main Street Wilson Outdoor Photo Festival, Wilson NC

2023 This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture, Museum of City of New York

2022 The Altered Environment, North Carolina Museum of Art, NC

2021 Contemporary Voices in Asian American Photography, the J. Paul Getty Museum

2020 Somewhere in the Past, Around Space Gallery, Shanghai, China

2020 Taiwan Biennial 2020, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan

2019 Psychogeography: Spiritual and Aesthetic, Hewitt Gallery of Art, Manhattan, NY

2018 Seeing the Worlds, Deutsch Bank, Manhattan, NY

2017   7 Line Subway Exhibition, New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2017

2017   Shifting Perspectives: Photographs of Brooklyn's Waterfront   Brooklyn Historical Society

2016   NY at its CORE   Museum of the City of New York

2015    Aperture: Photographs   Avenue of the Americas Gallery in New York

2015    Wild Noise: Artwork from The Bronx Museum of the Arts and El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes at El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

2015   Time Present: International Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection Touring Asia, National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai

2014   Time Present: International Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection Touring Asia,  Singapore Art Museum

2014   Of Time and Buildings,  George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

2013   A Beautiful Way to Go: New York's Green-Wood Cemetery,  Museum of City of New York

2013   After Photoshop: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX

2013  0 to 60: The Experience of Time through Contemporary Art,  North Carolina Museum of Art

2012  SVA Alumni Show Myths & Realities by Kathy Ryan and Scott Thode, School of Visual Art Gallery

2012  From Farm to City: Staten Island, Museum of City of New York

2011  New York, New York! The 20th Century, Katonah Museum of Art

2011  25 Years/25 Artists, Julie Saul Gallery, New York

2008  Rethinking Landscape: Photography from the Allen G. Thomas Jr. Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, VA  

2008  Photoscapes, Kinz, Tillou + Feigen, NY 

2007  Habitat 7, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles  

2007  Vital Signs: Place, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY  

2007  Big Picture, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL  

2007  CHINA seen by..., University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI      

2006  Depth of Field, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY 

2006  HotPics/06, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY 

2005  See What I Mean, Visual Art Gallery, NY 

2004  Nexus: Taiwan in Queens, Queens Museum of Art, NY

Awards

2012   Emerging Icon in Photography Award, George Eastman House

2006  New Photographers to Watch, PDN 30, Photo District News

2005  New York Times Magazine 2nd Annual "Capture The Times" Winner

Publications

2017   24 Solar Terms: Central Park, Nazraeli Press

2014  Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao: New York, Aperture

2013  Coney Island, Nazraeli Press

2007  Habitat 7,  Nazraeli Press

Collections

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY

Citibank Collection, Long Island City, NY

Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

Deutsche Bank Collection, New York, NY

George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA

Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Museum of the City of New York, NY

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL

North Carolina Museum of Art

Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), MA

Queens Museum of Art, NY

Rose Museum at Brandeis University, MA

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Yeshiva University, New York, NY

Ronay and Richard Menschel Collection

The Pilara Foundation Collection / Pier 24

Allen G. Thomas Jr. Collection, Wilson, NC

JGS / Howard Stein Collection

Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser Collection