Catherine Liu

Philadelphia-based artist and designer Catherine Liu’s work focuses on the physical spaces we inhabit, and how our minds fill and affect them. A design major at the University of Pennsylvania, Liu has expertise in digital, graphic, and product design. All of these skills manifest in her immaculate artistic renditions of psychologically-infused interiors.

Taking a psychological approach to both art and design, Liu examines how personalities effect changes on the rooms we live in. Through changes in mood and mentality, we can change our attitude towards the space around us and alter certain aspects through simple acts like cleaning up or larger acts like redesigning and reorganizing.

To represent these themes artistically, Liu utilizes a blend of manual and digital illustration techniques. Rooms are displayed in a designer’s expanded view, allowing the viewer to consider a space holistically. Every corner of each work contains important and vivid details, from an upturned corner of a blanket to a covered mirror. Each detail conveys specific facets of the psychological-interior interface, building a constellation of reference points for the viewer to connect. The works echo the mind-as-house allegories of famed literature, like “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, creating a viewing experience full of intrigue and personal connection.