November 8 – December 3, 2022
Oasis, Amy Liu’s solo exhibition at VillageOneArt, cast an intimate yet otherworldly lens on themes of identity, belonging and self-realization.
The artist rooted this body of work within a careful consideration of personal experience and art historical topics in equal measure. To quote the Surrealist Manifesto by André Breton, “Beloved imagination, what I like most in you is your unsparing quality.” This regard for imagination, such as that held within the dreamworld and the unconscious, as a means of enacting transformation was explored in the introspective, saturated, neon and jewel-toned tableaux Liu presented in this formative solo exhibition with VillageOneArt. Reflecting on surviving personal trauma, Liu painted in dialogue with her journey toward developing self-love and acceptance, along with a grateful sense of survival. The artist divided the exhibition into two distinct bodies of work: one engaged with an intrinsic sense of divisiveness and “haunting sadness,” as she explained, and a second segment of paintings was in dialogue with an appreciation for personal growth and healing. As the artist eloquently elaborated, “Ultimately this is a story of becoming. It’s me rediscovering who I am under layers of facades and armor.”
Where Liu’s work enticed and enchanted was in its careful combination of visual reference points and tight compositional frameworks. Visual textures spanned vibrant neon hues in contrast with expansive, deep blues and purples, allowing an introspective and surreal vision of landscapes, neighborhoods, and portraiture, evidenced in the evocative Oasis. References to fifteenth-century Northern European painting, the Dutch and German Masters, and architectural and tapestry masterpieces abounded, integrated in the artist’s work with a nod to Pop Art’s bold lines and flat color expanses. Undulating organic curves contrasted with geometric patterning throughout these works, with a palpable sense of longing and displacement in expansive and mysterious works such as Outside and Azurée. The artist harnessed the imagery of marble and stone texture throughout the elements of her compositions, redolent of the architectural and geological histories that shape how we relate to the past from both a collective and a personal lens.
Works in the Exhibition
Oasis was on view at VillageOneArt, 150 West 25th Street, Suite 403, New York, from November 8 to December 3, 2022. For inquiries regarding available works by Amy Liu, please contact info@villageoneart.com.