Liu Yin: Spring
Kiang Malingue is pleased to present Liu Yin鈥檚 solo exhibition 鈥淪pring鈥� at its Tin Wan gallery space in Hong Kong, featuring a series of paintings and watercolours created in the past two years. Known for developing a painting practice that puts Sh艒jo manga-inspired cute faces on public figures in academic or political fields, pop culture characters and inanimate objects, Liu reveals and reshapes the emotional and narrative structures that operate within complex events. The theme of 鈥淪pring鈥� casually alludes to Botticelli鈥檚 masterpiece, presenting a series of landscapes and still lifes that add large, crystalline eyes and adorable faces to flowers, plants, fruits and skulls. The recent artworks further the artist鈥檚 interest in transforming the mundane, revealing the subversive potential of female gaze, and the surging tide of emotion that corresponds to the complexities of our time.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Wind, a large-scale painting rendering a group scene of rose-figures, along with a number of smaller rose portraits. This series of rose-figures depicts difficult situations of conflict: unlike the other works in the exhibition which make direct use of cheerful springtime colours and portray the tranquil existence of organic life forms, Liu鈥檚 roses unleash intense, aggressive emotions: fury, sadness, cries and struggles in the midst of grim storms. The fragile, bodiless rose-figures are overwhelmed, petals falling, swaying in the darkness of the dramatic scenes. Liu鈥檚 depiction evokes an 鈥渁wakening鈥� that is a far cry from its Western political counterpart, re-examining the aesthetic and political values of Sh艒jo manga and the significance of masquerade on collective and individual levels.
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Kiang Malingue is pleased to present Liu Yin鈥檚 solo exhibition 鈥淪pring鈥� at its Tin Wan gallery space in Hong Kong, featuring a series of paintings and watercolours created in the past two years. Known for developing a painting practice that puts Sh艒jo manga-inspired cute faces on public figures in academic or political fields, pop culture characters and inanimate objects, Liu reveals and reshapes the emotional and narrative structures that operate within complex events. The theme of 鈥淪pring鈥� casually alludes to Botticelli鈥檚 masterpiece, presenting a series of landscapes and still lifes that add large, crystalline eyes and adorable faces to flowers, plants, fruits and skulls. The recent artworks further the artist鈥檚 interest in transforming the mundane, revealing the subversive potential of female gaze, and the surging tide of emotion that corresponds to the complexities of our time.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Wind, a large-scale painting rendering a group scene of rose-figures, along with a number of smaller rose portraits. This series of rose-figures depicts difficult situations of conflict: unlike the other works in the exhibition which make direct use of cheerful springtime colours and portray the tranquil existence of organic life forms, Liu鈥檚 roses unleash intense, aggressive emotions: fury, sadness, cries and struggles in the midst of grim storms. The fragile, bodiless rose-figures are overwhelmed, petals falling, swaying in the darkness of the dramatic scenes. Liu鈥檚 depiction evokes an 鈥渁wakening鈥� that is a far cry from its Western political counterpart, re-examining the aesthetic and political values of Sh艒jo manga and the significance of masquerade on collective and individual levels.
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