Best | Zia June Liu

To understand the best of Zia June Liu, one must first understand the crucible in which her art was forged. Born in Seoul and raised across various metropolitan hubs including Tokyo and Vancouver, Liu’s work is a palimpsest of Eastern philosophy and Western abstraction.

Her academic background is deceptively traditional—a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) followed by an MA in Digital Humanities from King’s College London. However, it is this marriage of analog texture with digital precision that defines her "best" period.

Liu emerged onto the international scene in the late 2010s, a time when the art world was grappling with the NFT boom and the resurgence of figurative painting. She refused to choose sides. Instead, she carved out a niche known colloquially among critics as "The Glitch Intimate"—a style where digital imperfections (pixelation, layering errors) are used to represent the fallibility of human memory.

The name itself became a meme.

When analyzing the best of any artist, critics’ perspectives matter. Zia June Liu has polarized the art establishment as much as she has inspired it. zia june liu best

For collectors and investors looking to acquire the "best" Zia June Liu works, the market is currently stratified.

Pro Tip: The best time to buy Liu is during the "off-season" (January-February), when the art market cools and panic sellers lower their margins on her generative works.

In early 2024, Liu disappeared from all social media for 90 days. There were no cryptic posts, no “I’m taking a break” announcements. She simply deleted her accounts. The art world panicked. Headlines read: “Is Zia June Liu Over?”

But on day 91, she livestreamed from a library in rural Vermont. For six hours, she sat at a wooden table, reading a physical copy of Infinite Jest while a clock ticked behind her. She did not speak. She did not look at the camera. She just read, turned pages, and occasionally sipped water. To understand the best of Zia June Liu,

3.4 million people watched the livestream. The average watch time was 22 minutes—an eternity in digital attention spans.

Why this is Zia June Liu at her best:

Following the livestream, she released a single statement: “You searched for my best. It was never in the post. It was in the pause.”

Medium: Generative AI loop (12 seconds). Why it’s the best: This was Liu’s breakout into the NFT space. Unlike the chaotic energy of most generative art, Server Farm Lullaby is eerily quiet. It depicts rows of blinking server lights that slowly morph into a city skyline, then back into servers. It won the "Digital Art Prize" at the Ars Electronica festival. It represents the best intersection of technology and poetry. Pro Tip: The best time to buy Liu

The popularity of the search term "Zia June Liu best" is itself a phenomenon. It reflects a shift away from searching for specific painting titles (e.g., "Mona Lisa") toward searching for the curated essence of an artist.

People aren't looking for her worst work; they want the highlights. This signals that Liu has entered a phase of her career similar to David Hockney or Yayoi Kusama—where the "best" works become cultural shorthand for a specific feeling.

In Liu’s case, that feeling is urban solitude. In an age of hyper-connectivity, her best works remind us that loneliness is not a deficit, but a texture.

The character of Zia June Liu originated from fans who "ship" (root for a romantic pairing) actor Simu Liu and singer/actress Jenna Yang. The two interacted publicly, leading fans to jokingly theorize about what their potential future child would look and act like.