Fangying Lu

These paintings are a tactile arena of subtle spatial impressions. “I favour the fluid, stained pigments” writes artist Fangying Lu. Like a sound bath her paintings immerse the viewer across sensory dimensions. They are zones of drift and autonomy; an amorphous place without an agenda – otherwise than to unfurl, and be. And colour is the zone of rumination: shades emanate from the one chosen as central to the palette. 

These oil paintings (on canvas, sometimes on linen) draw on botanical and surrealist imagery, giving the watery milieu of a garden fountain, or meadow stream – or a memory that encases the viewer. Like the brilliant Leonora Carrington, for whom spaces for magical transformation were sacred, Fangying’s works are alchemical. Her works will compose themselves through spacious layering of elements. ‘Hiding and Escaping’ is an exceptional work, its execution the consummation of the artist’s aesthetic investigations. 

Director Sarah's take: 

I very much like the gentle yet intensely saturated palette of this artist: oil paint which almost has the feel of chalk pastel. Occasionally reminiscent of Odilon Redon’s lightest palette. Fangying demonstrates  the gentlest side of this robust medium: there is a real softness that she has managed to establish. The boundarylessness  of the soft-edged organic; fluid in subject and composition –  yet with such richness. This is really unique and interesting work. I particularly love her series ‘Hiding & Escaping’.