July 22, 2022
Wu Shuang is an abstract expressionist painter known for her bold colors and sumptuous brushstrokes. Her works are a visual feast that focuses on themes that are human-centered and nature-inspired. Often implied with pain, melancholy and self-sabotaging, the state of mind of Wu's subjects is visible through titles of her works aimed at the search of inner spiritual mind and internal meaning of freedom.
Wu has always observed her methods in utilizing multiple techniques to create works that demonstrate control over color, shape, and composition. Her abilities generate flexibility that is well-placed and balanced with her remarkable ability to sense and manipulate colors. In this exhibition, Wu continues to explore the poesy reflecting on the human condition and unifies them in an undulated time-space that evokes various styles of periodic fragments.
"There will undoubtedly be many summers in my life, but none as warm as the midsummer of 2015. Like a hyperboloid of divine light, passing through time and space infinitely, it was as if the light waves were in a sheltered haven. Its dynamic brush strokes in colorful symphonic rhythms have a dramatic plot hidden in the mixture of messy yet rich colors. The morning light which shines on the ground was my vision of the ground dividing itself into two worlds to create a pantomime of God."
- WU Shuang
"At times, life is like a fish. Though they exist, they're unapproachable. Like blood that pumps through the heart, like light that flashes when you close your eyes or like scenes that succumbs to the passage of time.
The animals, overwhelmed, scurry to be "rescued", they shroud themselves in black clouds under the stars; cunning and secretive, tumbling and wandering in a microcosm. At the same time, they are caught in the forces of will. An energy that has no reason, path, or excuse, which eventually appear as patches reflected in different forms."
- WU Shuang
"Global Santa" is a comprehensive expression of various media in brush strokes, lines, and unpredictability of the creation process. To find a balance between spontaneity and certainty, chance and necessity, Wu returns to the picture to rationalize a form with a stable structure to keep the paint flowing. According to the artist: "This is my understanding of globalization. The original formal structure deconstructs continuously, presenting a "meaningful form."
Wu created this painting in the early snowy winter in 2022. Wu recalls: “I recall the moonlight that surrounded us during the winter sky and the silence at midnight as we collected snow. The soft starlight that shone in the snow reminded me of the uncertainty in the course of life. In the past, we took long walks together at midnight in a snowy landscape. But nothing lasts forever. Whether beneath the stars and the moonlight, all the light is worth feeling. Let us remember this journey of true love that no one knows about. Everyone has a moon phase concealed in their heart that they find dear to them such as people or objects that are precious in their own beautiful unwavering light.”
”Blue Fog" (2021) combines and superimposes lines, shapes and colors making associations around the seemingly contradictory opposition: reality and dreams, conscious and the unconscious, three-dimensional and flat plane, abstract and concrete. It highlights the mystery, fantasy and elegance reflected in Wu’s experiences, expressing the inherent "essence" of life, rather than copying the "appearance" of life. It is the innate essence and indispensable materials that shapes the characteristics of the subject.
Born in 1986 in Chongqing, Wu Shuang is an outstanding young artist that works with Abstract Expressionism. In 2007, she studied in Free Art Institution of Kassel University in Germany. In 2009, she graduated from the BA Oil Painting in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.
She continued her study and graduated from Master degree program in Engraving from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2014. Since then she lives and works in Beijing as a professional artist.
Wu Shuang's art is alluring, she is good at using colours, especially colours of high purity and clarity. She is able to mix a lot of bright colours, which seem contrasted, however in her work they are harmonious. Besides, her art possesses deep and vast enthusiasm that is universal, something that is rare for Chinese female artists. Under the seemingly free and open-minded appearance, her work reflects severe and stern control as well as rationality. Wu Shuang’s work represents her adventurous spirit, and it keeps on attracting people of different generations. For her distinct style, she has collaborated with heavy-weight brands such as Mercedes-Benz China International Fashion Week for consecutive three years, and her work is widely exhibited in China.
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