Beili Liu starts with patience, time and the utmost regard for a sense of the process of art-making.

"I wait for the moment of surprise," says the Chinese-born artist. "Then I let the materials guide me."

Where the materials have lately guided Liu is to create a series of ethereal, beautiful fragile sculptures that currently fill D. Berman Gallery in the artist's first solo exhibit in Austin since she joined the faculty of the University of Texas' department of art and art history in 2008.

In Liu's hands, burning incense sticks become delicate paintbrushes that leave graceful, wisplike marks — hundreds of them — in mesmerizing compositions on sheets of rice paper. Each drawing takes long hours to complete. With one wall installation, "Toil," luscious cream-colored silk organza — the edges of the gorgeous, delicate fabric burned brown — are wrapped into small spirals that seemingly erupt out of the gallery wall like strange plants.

In another installation, "Miasma," unspun black wool forms ghostly, spiralling columns that cluster forestlike in the gallery. The columns seem suspended in midair, the filament they hang from invisible. "Miasma" is menacing, yes, but beautiful too.

The tug between East and West — that feeling of being suspended between two diverse and often contrary cultural value systems — is a constant for Liu.

Born in the small town of Jilin in northeastern China, Liu grew up in the city of Shenzhen, the first of the special economic zones in China. It saw rapid growth and commercialization in the past few decades, going from a modest fishing town to booming metropolis of more than 10 million — a pattern of culture clashing that still resonates in Liu's art.

Liu, now 35, came to the United States in 1995 to study art. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee and her master of fine arts at the University of Michigan. Her work has steadily garnered critical attention and exposure. This year, Liu had solo exhibits in Los Angeles and in Shanghai. Since she moved to Austin, Liu's work has been seen in a faculty exhibit at UT and included in the People's Gallery exhibit at Austin City Hall.

"I'm never far away from the past," she says. But she remains very much in the present, always feeling the conflict of the two sometimes contradictory cultures.

"Beili has such a distinct artistic voice that draws strongly on her upbringing in China," says Anatasia Colombo, associate director of D. Berman Gallery. "Her work is very immediately compelling and instills a feeling of curiosity. The strength of each piece is partly because of its subtlety and an elegant sense of balance."

Colombo became intrigued by Liu's work that was featured in the UT faculty show and offered the artist an exhibit.

"Bound #2" stands as something of a centerpiece of the current exhibit. Two weathered, human-sized oak columns (reclaimed wood from shipping containers) stand in opposition to each other, thousands of gossamer red threads spanning the distance between them. Liu explains that the piece is based on the Chinese cultural myth of the red thread of destiny — the idea that when each person is born, they are connected to their soulmate by an invisible red thread, a thread that extends through a soul's many lifetimes.

"There's a sense of longing (to the work)," says Liu. The two posts read as bodies, she explains. And yet there are thousands of delicate red threads between them. Which one connects the soulmates?

The process of connecting and disconnecting is central to everything Liu creates. As much as she strikes a delicate balance between two different cultures, it's the process of connecting — the process of discovering where the materials in your hands are leading you — that's as important to Liu's work.

"Tie, Untie" is a three-minute looping video in which we see Liu's hands as she unties a jumble of fine red thread. Liu's hands are under water, and the illuminated image undulates as Liu's hands fish through the floating thread trying to untangle the frenzied mess. Adding to the tangle, the video is projected onto a billowy heap of white thread that cascades out of a gallery corner onto the floor.

Eventually, we see Liu's hand find the ends of the red threads. Liu calmly ties them together. And then, without a stop, the video — and the untangling, and the two lost ends finding each other — begins again.

Perhaps, Liu's video suggests, the secret to connecting is in the process of seeking.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

'Beili Liu: Bound'

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays through Oct. 24

Where: D. Berman Gallery

Cost: Free

Information: 477-8877,
www.dbermangallery.com, www.beililiu.com

Artist's talk: 1 p.m. Saturday. Free.