Abstract art meets iconography at Gao Jialu's solo exhibition
2023-08-19 to 2023-10-08
2023-08-19 to 2023-10-08
Space & Gallery Association is presenting artist Gao Jialu's inaugural solo exhibition "Easter" at its Shanghai gallery on the Bund.
As a traditional Western festival, Easter has always come the first Sunday after the Paschal moon, and thus has a secular meaning of rebirth and revival in seasonal festivals. Gao's works are centered around the connotations of Easter, conveying her humanism as an individual through her concerns for universal propositions such as "hope" and "rebirth."
The exhibition, displaying more than 40 paintings, features two of the artist's series "Figures" and "Eggs," which were completed over the past six years. The series "Figures" is highlighted with the eponymous work based on Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper."
"The Last Supper," oil on canvas, 2021
Gao has created a system of symbols with independent meanings through her imagination and spontaneous writings. At first glance, they look like Chinese characters with text, but with a closer look, they're just images composed of strokes and lines that don't have any actual meaning.
"I borrow the form and shape of the Chinese characters, and make them a part of my art," she said. "Characters are a means to communicate and exchange, through which I'm inviting viewers to interact with the figures in the paintings. They are adding narration, and ensuring the structural integrity of my paintings."
Using oil paint as her primary medium, she has been seeking a correlation between shape and symbols and has been expressing her iconographies on the canvas.
"Let there be light," oil on canvas, 2023
Based on the study of abstract language, she has been exploring the pictorial significance of independent, systematic character symbols in contemporary art. With intuitive brush strokes, she seeks the connection between colors and images from the meaning and structure of lines and symbols.
The contrast and movement of colors and lines form geometric images which composes a narrative. Meanwhile, the simplicity of technique and arrangement abstracts the burden of history that is placed on the colors and lines, allowing her paintings to achieve an abstract and pure visual effect.
"Origin," oil on canvas, 2022
Exhibition info:
Date: Through October 9, 10am-6:30pm
Venue: Space & Gallery Association (SGA) Shanghai
Address: 3/F, 3 Zhongshan Rd E1
中山东一路3号3楼