Almost Everything You Try Ends Up In New Frustrations

Title

Almost Everything You Try Ends Up In New Frustrations

Artist

Michael Andrew Law Cheuk Yui

Medium

Painting - Mixed Media On Canvas

Description

The Pale Hair Girls from the Hyper Pop Surrealism series of oil paintings marks Michael Andrew Law Law's early period, starting in 2006. The pieces showcase detailed figures with innocent faces. The cold, icy stares of the young women are surrounded by pop culture shapes and forms, including historical figures and Hong Kong landmarks. These paintings introduce the world of the Pale Haired Girls, the world that extends into later collections. These pieces serve as character studies. They respond to the very real appearance worshipers of Hong Kong's millennial generation and from Law's experience of that cultural perspective. The artist shows us the cult of the new millennium and compels us to join. His seemingly relentless obsession with beauty is actually a subversive jab at the cult of images.

The paintings all include three visual elements that have become Law's signature. They feature a white haired female figure, a large Xizhi Wang calligraphy character, and either glitter or gold leaf adornment. The female figure is actually a form of self portrait, showing the sentiments of the artist as channeled through popular images of his native Hong Kong. The use of the Xizhi Wang calligraphy has several purposes. It is not the language of Hongkonger's and it is removed from local culture. Inclusion of the symbols strengthens the post-war iconography. There is still a strong admiration of the Chinese traditions, but locals distance themselves feom it as other. Law uses the symbols as an encroachment of the other, and as a means of telling his story through a dominant language. The third element gives a self aggrandizing accent. It also adds to the three-dimensionality and allows original works to stand out from printed replicas.

The paintings in this original series are all drawn in studio, with live models. Rather than being merely representational, Law draws from his Surrealist leanings to combine symbol, body and imagined landscape. The pieces each stand on their own, but the depth of their influence increases in series. Rather than a single repeated figure, Law gives us a reoccurring stream of characters. As multiples, these female characters become unique, but manufactured entities.

Pale Hair Girls paintings are inspired by French academic painter and traditionalist William-Adolphe Bouguereau and the Late Great YiFei Chen's romantic realism style. They can be compared to works by classical masters: Caravaggio, Rubens, Titian, and Rembrandt. Caravaggio's chiaroscuro technique is especially influential to this collection and, to a lesser degree, so are Rembrandt's figurative works. Law's use of light and shadow carves into the paintings, creating depth and imagined spaces beyond what the eye can see. His attention to detail gives these characters a place to dwell.

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January 13th, 2014

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