Joy Liu received her BA in Studio Art at the University of California, Irvine in 2004. Feeling a strong need to address and document land use and development, Liu produced work that explored public and private space by creating audio and walking tours, interactive installations, and video and photographic works. Her initial body of work helped to incite a shift beyond conceptual dialogue and move towards grassroots practice and social change.

Liu joined the United States Peace Corps in rural South Africa immediately following her undergraduate program. She emerged as an artist as educator focused on economic, social, and educational change and empowerment through community-based art initiatives and asset-based community development.

After completing her Peace Corps service in 2006, she created and implemented various public programs and community outreach projects in collaboration with organizations that serve immigrant, urban, and detained youth through Zeum, an art and technology museum in downtown San Francisco, California.

She is currently in the Art and Visual Culture Education graduate program at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

More recently, she has turned to creating works on paper - in collage and writing.

She can be found running through the Sonoran Desert, swimming in the U of A pool, biking around Tucson, eating/studying/eating at El Suagarito, and dreaming of snow capped mountains in Chile.