ESLITE GALLERY is pleased to present Chinese artist LU Liang’s first solo show in Taiwan. LU Liang’s paintings have very strong narrative quality and at the same time implicate powerful emotions beneath their quiet appearances, reflecting the complex and agitating ambience of the contemporary world. 

Human’s state of survival in this fast-pace society has always been the pivot of LU’s work. Through exquisite rendering of the light and setting, he creates scenes which look realistic while are emotionally indescribable to bring out his queries about the contemporary life in China and beyond. In many of LU’s landscapes or interiors such as Three Fifteen, Grey Island, and the “Night Road” and “Underground Office” series, people are absent from the depicted scenes. However, traces of human activities can be sensed clearly in these spaces that hint at some unspoken stories.  

The “Zhuangzi” series that LU started during his graduated school years was inspired by his reading of the Chinese classical literature Zhuangzi. The dramatic setting and lighting in this series remind us of the paintings from the Baroque while motifs from the Song Dynasty ink painting can also be found. All these references to classic materials of both the East and the West have been blended into fables about people’s life nowadays. LU once said: “I wish to use the classics with a contemporary attitude rather than invariably worship or simply imitate them. For me, the continuation of classics is a mode of appreciating the world, a mode that might seem clumsy but is undoubtedly reliable.”

LU Liang was born in 1975 in Shanghai, China. He went to Beijing to pursue his artistic training in the Department of Murals in The Central Academy of Fine Arts, and graduated with B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1999 and 2005 respectively. LU is currently a lecturer at The Central Academy of Fine Arts.

*image (left)
Brick Pile, 2007
oil on canvas, 200x360cm
courtesy of the artist