Line by Line | Lu Luo

On Sunday 15 December, the first solo exhibition by the Chinese artist Lu Luo (1971, China) will open at MPV Gallery in Den Bosch. The Line by Line exhibition shows an extensive selection of recent work, which is characterized by the recurring motif of classical Chinese kimonos and theater costumes from original Chinese plays and operas.

While in her early work Lu Luo uses the original fabrics of the appealing costumes directly on the canvas, she gradually develops other working methods and visual elements with which she places the characteristic shapes, patterns and specific signs that can adorn the garments on the surface. For example, the paintings are covered with strips of paper or parts of pre-printed Chinese cardboard packaging with which she creates a composition of surfaces that evoke associations with the theater pieces. The most recent development in Lu Luo's work consists of the weaving of Chinese silk fabrics, which Lu Luo processes into thick twists. She uses these twists to imitate a traditional costume form and sticks this traditionally woven form to the canvas. In a way, these twists can refer to thick yarns that make up the costumes. It creates, as it were, a new fabric for recreated kimonos. The whole is finished with oil paint and various inks in characteristic bright colours.

By merging pronounced colors and form experiments with the kimono shape or with other explicitly Chinese visual elements, Lu Luo bridges the gap between Western and Eastern culture. The emphasis on the two-dimensional plane, which is an explicit given in Asian culture, thus enters into a dialogue with the distinctly material character of the work; the use of everyday and non-artistic materials in the work of art is a characteristic feature in the visual arts that has developed in the western cultural world, especially since the second half of the 20th century.