Lu Luo

BRICOLAGE

Galerie Martina Kaiser is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Lu Luo, presenting “BRICOLAGE”, a conversation of textures, substance and narrative.

The line as essence and existence at the same time: Lu Luo's works are strongly linear in character and break up the underlying geometric stringency with haptic materials and a sensualistic colouring. This field of tension between formal reduction and textural opulence is continued in braided structures, loose threads, and tassels and turns into object art.

Originally inspired by the costumes of the Chinese opera, the environment of her childhood, Lu Luo discovered her preference for textile fabrics such as silk early on. While her first series of works still showed references back to Chinese stage- and costume art, Lu Luo’s works are now developing into abstract installations, returning to the materiality and expressivity of form itself.  The title "BRICOLAGE", then, coined by the French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, refers to the art of improvisation and intuition; where there is no "inappropriate" use of resources and objects, no tradition or dogma in dealing with things. Instead, the "bricoleur" relies on experimentation and random discovery and arrangement, guided by the inner drive that everything is significant and interwoven.

Lu Luo follows this approach and expands its application into artistic activity to include the aspect of finding one's identity. Her works tell of the struggle of a woman who wears herself out in her diverse roles as an artist, wife, mother, sister, and daughter, and sometimes threatens to lose her way. Art becomes a home, absorbs all the emotions and contradictions of life, provides support and orientation. The strong textures in Lu Luo's work are a reflection of her feelings through the interwovenness of the fabric and the repetition of form that evoke a sense of routine and labour, as well as a notion of incantation, meditation, and thought. Varying from black-grey gradients to bright blue or yellow nuances, the colours seem intuitively arranged and composed according to rhythm, rhyme, and sometimes paradoxical sensitivities. As Lu Luo says: "Each colour has its own language, its own unique effect. By immersing myself in the colours and creating a balance between them, I can also create inner harmony. It is a kind of meditative, deeply peaceful act to find my identity both as a woman and as an artist."

In terms of materials, Lu Luo uses time-honoured Chinese art materials such as silk, paper and ink, paired with acrylic paints. The results are works that are as beguiling as they are profound, testifying to the fact that pure beauty can ultimately emerge from the confrontation with inner conflicts. (Yorca Schmidt-Junker)

Lu Luo (*1971) lives and works in Ticino (CH). Lu received her initial education at the Sichuan College of Fine Arts in China before moving to the Netherlands in 1995, where he pursued further studies at the Minerva Academy in Groningen, before establishing her artistic career in the decades that followed. Lu Luo’s works can be found in collections all over the world, and have also been shown in exhibitions at the Groningen Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, and the Museum Rijswijk (all NL), among others. As of today, she spends her time between her studio in China and her residence in Switzerland.