Liu Shih-Tung｜The Subtle Realm

Lin & Lin Gallery is pleased to present The Subtle Realm, the solo exhibition of Liu Shih-Tung in December. The exhibition continues the core concept of the artist's work, Fragment, which is composed of memories, pictorial objects, and perception. It employs a small size as its platform that enables seeing to unfold in the space of a small canvas. “Subtle” refers to a gaze upon the minutest existence. In this area of rapidly generated and shifted imagery, Liu attempts to explore the perception of seeing, considering how vision shapes our relationship with the world. Within this profoundly poetic and perceptive visual realm, the artist leads the audience beyond the visual codes of the surface imagery, to glimpse the most subtle landscapes of the mind.

In this exhibition, the artist continues to use collage as his main creative language. Cut-and-combined images and layered acrylic paint and brushwork texture create fragments of daily life scenes. Symbols such as flower-and-bird, portrait of people, and animal-and-insect, are repeated themes in his work. The various collage details are cut from newspapers and magazines, and the original images are mixed and layered with the shape outlines to form humorous pictures of everyday life. The layered compositions of the works break the surface meaning of the original images.  As the audience's perceptive shifts, the delicate textures and collage details interconnect to create an entirely new visual narrative.
 

“What I painted is not an object. It's a sign of being.” ——Liu Shih-Tung