LYU Peng: Beautiful Pictures

Jul 13 — Sep 7, 2024

June 13, 2024 (Palo Alto, CA) – Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to present Beautiful Pictures, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of Chinese contemporary painter LYU Peng. The exhibition will highlight a new body of illusive work entitled “Beautiful Pictures”, the exhibition’s namesake, that includes the artist’s first representations of animals, in addition to a previous series focused on the Little Red Book, “Reading Times”. The exhibition will be open to the public from July 13 – September 7, 2024, with an opening celebration hosted on Saturday, July 13th, from 4:30-6:30 PM PST with the artist in attendance. For more information, please visit www.qualiagallery.com.

Lyu demonstrates a masterful command of Chinese mineral pigments and the technique of traditional Chinese “meticulous painting” on silk, but in service of his own unique approach to painting. His characteristic style is influenced by oil painting methods and the Western art historical canon, as well as the social, economic, political, and cultural context of contemporary China, and both the ancient and modern history of its origins. Iconic 20th-century touchpoints, like the Little Red Book, meet inset depictions of Tang dynasty blue-green shanshui landscape paintings, surrounded by angelic figures with Gen-Z haircuts and selfie sticks.

Such creative anachronism is perfectly intertwined with the surrealist roots of Lyu’s compositions, themselves complemented by several nods to both Salvador Dalí and René Magritte’s respective oeuvres. Beyond surrealism, Lyu also cites the early and high Italian Renaissance periods and artists like Giotto, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Caravaggio as significant influences, Chinese artists like Gu Kaizhi and his epic illustrated handscroll Nymph of the Luo River, bird-and-flower painting, and the composition and color palette of Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings.

Lyu’s new works are filled with Illusionary depictions of paintings within paintings, trompe l’oeil windows within impossible architectural structures, and theatrical curtains framing scenes of fantastical wildlife in his own imagined version of the “natural” world. In Beautiful Picture [美丽图画], the eponymous work of the exhibition, the artist employs a number of illusionistic tricks between the background and foreground. The Magritte-esque visual archetypes and conventions are coupled with an ambiguous blend of real and imagined elements. For example, the nude subject is precariously perched atop a stone wall and set against an idyllic landscape, its frame-obscured head lit from above with divinely scattered light rays that emerge from an impossible puncture in the blue sky; in contrast, the rose bush that trails across the lower half of the piece was painted from the real-life rose bush that grows outside Lyu’s studio in Beijing.

The complexity of these layered dreamscapes, and the breadth of historical and contemporary motifs and symbols therein, ensure that no one narrative or theme can prevail over an infinite expanse of potential interpretations. Lyu hopes that the intentionally open-ended, non-linear nature of his work will allow viewers to personally engage, creating their own unique understanding as informed by their individual experiences and perceptions. As part of the gallery’s ongoing programmatic focus on contemporary Asian artists, Qualia is proud to welcome Lyu back to the Bay Area following his 2021 solo show, The Youth, The Magic World.

About LYU Peng

LYU Peng is a Chinese contemporary painter who was born in Beijing, China in 1967 and received his PhD in Chinese Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China in 2007. He uses traditional Chinese techniques in contemporary self-reflection as an attempt to find peace in current times. He is a Director at the Beijing Association of Meticulous Painting, the Managing Director and Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Institute of Education Art Education Research Association, and a Director of the Pastel Society of Beijing.

LYU has exhibited widely nationally and internationally at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; Songzhuang Art Center, Beijing, China; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China; Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea;

Prajna Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; among others. LYU has exhibited as part of the 2013 Venice Biennale, Italy-China Biennial in Monza, Italy, FIAC, Paris, France; Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Art Chicago, Chicago, IL; Art Now Art Fair, Miami, FL; and ART ASIA Art Fair, Miami, FL.

His works are in the private and public collections of the National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China; Meilun Art Museum, China; Xiamen Art Museum, China; Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House, China; Prajna Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea; Geoje Arts Center, Geoje, South Korea; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Asian Art Coordinating Council, Denver, CO; among others.

About Qualia Contemporary Art

Located in downtown Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, Qualia Contemporary Art is dedicated to showcasing outstanding established and emerging artists working in a variety of media. The gallery is committed to building lasting relationships with artists, collectors, curators, and scholars nationally and internationally, and providing a vital platform for dialogues on contemporary art and culture in the Bay Area and beyond.

New Location

229 Hamilton Ave

Palo Alto, CA 94301

Gallery Contact

Dacia Xu

650-656-9132

dacia@qualiagallery.com