Alliance Française present recent works by famous Singaporean artist Raymond Lau Poo Seng. About 30 paintings will be showcased, all inspired by the urban landscape in Singapore
"Mural...Mural: musing on my wall" presents Raymond Lau's prolific recent series of paintings, most of them produced since his last solo show in 2002. The 30 odd paintings showcased are all inspired by the urban landscape in Singapore.
Raymond is developing in this series a semi-abstract style which inspiration can be traced back to 1991 when he started to represent walls, looking at their textures very carefully.
With Window Speak, painted in 1992, we can find the first example of representation where texture is more important and has more to say than the subject itself. Developing further on some previous work, this time Raymond wants to break away from the use of lines and figurative themes that could be seen in his previous show Motherland, 2002.
The wall here is not the subject anymore but becomes a pretext for abstraction of reality. What we see through Raymond's representation may be different for each of us. The colored surface invites the viewer to let his imagination run and guess for example a fishing pound, a green field, a lake with birds flying over or a desert; a green land during spring with a cherry tree; a bunch of flower; birds waiting on an electric wire behind a house; a stormy sea or the reflection of a building on water...
Remembering the award-winning Echoes of the Window produced in 1993, Raymond acknowledges painting today with a more versatile, spontaneous and free style embodying references to Chinese painting: washed-out and light colors, strokes and black lines. It is Chinese painting style with Western media.
This new series is a testimony of Raymond Lau's ability to absorb new knowledge in his paintings and to challenge himself to make his style evolve. “If a painting is perfect, this is the end, there is no more experiment†Says Raymond.
SG Private Banking Gallery
Alliance Francaise 4 th Floor
1 Sarkies Road
Tel: (65) 6737 8422
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