For Asian glass artist and former movie star Loretta Hui-Shan Yang, art is an evocative manifestation of love, life and spirituality.

Yang has devoted the last 20 years of her life to perfecting and reviving an ancient Chinese art glass technique called  Liuli (literally “beautiful glass”).

Today, her art studio has exhibits around the globe and 60 retail galleries in Asia—all evidence of Yang’s success in spurring a cultural renaissance around Liuli and building one of Asia’s luxury brands.

Americans now have the opportunity to discover and enjoy Liuli as created by Yang’s art glass studio, Liuligongfang, at its first U.S. retail location. 

The San Francisco gallery, called Liuli, is located at 37 Yerba Buena Lane, not far from Union Square. 

Shoppers seeking a gift or an inspiring piece of home décor will enjoy highly personalized customer service and a tranquil tea bar in the Zen-inspired gallery store.

“We chose San Francisco as our first U.S. location, because of its sophisticated art community and interest in the Pacific Rim,” says Yang.

The 3,100 square-foot gallery store showcases a wide range of original, hand-made Liuli art glass pieces, from graceful bowls and collectible figurines to delicate pendants, bold stemware and large museum-quality sculptures.

Prices for jewelry and stemware start at $75 and smaller collectible art pieces are $100 to $5,000, making giving or owning a piece of thought-provoking Liuli art within reach for a wide variety of shoppers interested in fine décor and unusualjewelry.

Just as Yang, who was a critically acclaimed and award-winning Taiwanese film star in the 1970s, breathed life into every role she 
portrayed, she sparks a harmony between art and life with every art glass piece she creates. 

Each Liuli collection is a meditation of the ephemeral philosophy of life and nature, revealing both authentic and modern expressions of Chinese culture.

"In the course of my creative activities, I've found myself aspiring more and more earnestly to create works of art that are of value and 
significance to society and contribute positively to its good,” Yang says.

Yang left the movie industry in 1987, at the height of her career, to pursue “enlightenment.” 

While studying the French glass-making process pate-de verre, which translates to paste of glass, Yang learned that the art form had actually originated in China and could be traced back 3,000 years to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. She and former film director Yi Chang became determined to resurrect the ancient art of Liuli and return it to the forefront of the art world.

Yang and Chang married and founded Liuligongfang (literally “glass workshop”) in Taiwan.

Today, Liuli creations are on display at  museums throughout the world, including the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, London’s renowned Victoria & Albert Museum and the  Bowers Museum of Fine Arts in Los Angeles.  The studio’s 60 Liuli gallery stores can be found in the finest malls and shopping districts in Asia.

When talking about what Liuili means to her and the public, Yang is 
fundamentally spiritual, never veering from her core philosophy on 
art and life. Each piece of Liuli reflects sacred awareness, benevolence and a story from ancient Chinese culture.

“A single person’s life is finite, but one piece of art is able to blend all of man’s wisdom and experience into a complete whole,” Yang says. “Art is today’s most powerful reaction to the nothingness threatened by modern existence.”