Waking from a dream

Fred H.C. Liang on making his mixed-media prints now at Ellen Miller Gallery

Fred H.C. Liant, “Crescent Edge III,” 2024. Gouache, four block woodcut, paper cut. 30”x22”. All photos courtesy Fred Liang

“I have friends who are natural colorists,” Fred H.C. Liang told me over the phone, “and I tell my students I’m not one of those people.”

You wouldn’t know that looking at his exuberantly tonal mixed media prints. Two are on view through Saturday at Ellen Miller Gallery in “Cut, Stitch, Paste.”

But what spurs Fred on, as he says below, is the haptic – the information conveyed through touch. You can see how that might lead him to woodblock printing and paper cutting, two of his central practices, although he also works with light and video, and has a show of that work up at Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown through August 6.

The prints at Ellen Miller Gallery are the focus here. As Fred explains, they’re based in part on Japanese Shunga prints – erotic art in their day.

“I’ve always liked the graphicness and thte forbiddenness in these prints,” Fred said. “It’s not just erotic art. It came out of Tantric Buddhism.” His work explores the layering of cultures, and here the layering begins in the source. Plus – there’s that energy and drive that comes from touch showing up again. That’s tantra.

“It’s awakening the life force with all your senses,” he said.

Fred writes: