Lei Yu: The jade in solitude, The stone in mediocrity
Hangzhou
August 30 –October 12, 2025
Lei Yu: The jade in solitude
The stone in mediocrity
Lei Yu: The jade in solitude, The stone in mediocrity
Exhibition: The jade in solitude, The stone in mediocrityDuration: August 30 –October 12, 2025Opening: 4:00 PM, Saturday, August 30 , 2025Livestream: 10:00 AM, Saturday, August 30, 2025
Her first impressions of thorns came from the trifoliate orange tree, its dense branches covered in sharp spikes, like a natural iron fence. What begins as defense becomes attack; what is meant to protect can also wound. The thorn itself is a paradox. From such natural forms and relations emerge abstract images: danger, pain, conflict, opposition. These tensions echo within the medium of lacquer itself. Its slow, non-linear process unsettles the edges of control and perception, stretching uniform time into variations that shift with temperature and humidity.Lei attempts to soften these tensions with a lighter touch—using gentle colors and pared-down forms to recalibrate distance and balance. Flat planes of color spread across the surface, concealing the complexity of craft, while tiny fractures hint at hidden intricacies. Single lines thread through the composition, making the lacquer’s weight seem suddenly airy, its polished sheen tempered by restraint. With a sense of ease that belies the effort, she turns nature’s antagonisms into a visual dialogue of harmony. Thorns once charged with defense are transformed into unfurling tails or overlapping wings; the depth of lacquer is reimagined as layered fields of color, glowing with a quiet radiance in the light.The jade in solitude, the stone in mediocrity. Hardness becomes soft, lightness bears the weight of history. Between danger and calm, resistance and acceptance, tradition and the present, Lei Yu’s work finds its reconciliation in brush and material.
Lei Yu, born in 1990 in Fuzhou, China, received her BFA in Lacquer Art from the China Academy of Art in 2014. She currently lives and works in Fuzhou.
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