展览名称 Title: 力 - 罗威香港个展 Power – Luo Wei

艺术家 Artist: 罗威 Luo Wei

策展人 Curator: 王仁龙 Sam Wong

展览时间 Duration : 2017.8.16 - 2017.8.20

场地 :香港视觉艺术中心 Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre

地址 :半山坚尼地道 7 号 7A Kennedy Road, Central

主办方:Je Fine Art Gallery SHANGHAI 上海杜若云章画廊 

协办方:上海光大私人银行 CEB Private Banking Club

后援方:虎吓艺术顾问机构 HK HUXIA PROJECTS

艺术跨界:泪珠 CiuCiu 意大利有机酒庄

“力”的展览场馆 | 香港视觉艺术中心

“力”的展览现场图

站在罗威的作品面前,就会不由自主地失了声,仿佛他的画创造了一个巨大的漩涡,让人天旋 地转,卷入一股无以言表的情绪之中。豪迈充满气势的笔触,生动如洪水般的颜色,在那一幅 幅巨大的画布上都活了过来,每时每刻都在舞动和挣扎。这就是罗威在香港视觉艺术中心上演 的一场视觉大戏——“力”,不需要任何言语就能传递出去,这就是他作品的力量,这也是 艺术的力量。

从这种冲击力缓过神来之后,会发现他画布上描绘的不仅仅是能量和情感,隐隐约约似乎还能 看到一些我们熟悉的形态。挣扎的笔触下能看到昆虫的触角,还能看到扑朔的翅膀。没错!充 斥着他大画幅的,意想不到的竟是蚊子、蜻蜓、蝴蝶还有草本之类的微小生命。

草本系列之绿花瓣 | 布面油彩 | 80*100cm | 2017

刚开始罗威只是偶然看到了一组蚊子的图片,意外发现了它们形态的美,随即开始了“孑孓系 列”的创作。虽然罗威的出发点是大家都没有发现的美,但是真正使他倾心于这个系列的是蚊 子引发的反思。是什么导致了我们对蚊子的厌恶之情呢?

孑孓系列之蓝蜻蜓 | 布面油彩 | 30*40 cm | 2017

深究下来,其实嗜血只是自然界授予它们的角色,它们疯狂的繁衍速度也只是为了弥补那短得 可怜的生命周期。在自然当中,每个物种都有他所属的位置,人也一样。蚊子向人类取它所 需,人类又向其他动植物取人类之所需;蚊子在它短暂的生命中去演绎它最大的存在感,这和 人们努力生活一样,只是形式不同。

身体之一 | 微喷 | 58*58 cm | 2017

孑孓系列呈现的,不仅仅是生活中大家没有发现的美,更是自然这部剧中必不可少的一幕。罗 威的蜻蜓系列、蝴蝶系列、草本系列、鹦鹉系列和孑孓系列无异,呈现的都是在一幅又一幅的 画布上,孵化、成长、羽化......的生命各态。罗威画笔下的生命力量就像泰戈尔写的诗句一 般,“使生如夏花之绚烂,死如秋叶之静美。”

花与蜻蜓 | 布面油画 | 70*70 cm | 2017

虽然罗威的艺术作品由自然而生,但是并没有终于“自然”二字,这里面又有他对社会的反 思。无论是蝶是花是鹦是蜓,它们都巨大得挣脱了画布的限制,成为了观众凝视的主角。这些 作品本身宣扬的就是普世价值里的“民主”。民主是二十世纪起来我们最重要的政治课题之一,让少数群体无论性别种族也可以拥有话语权。罗威画的又是佛典中说的众生平等,无论是 “四生”中的哪一类——胎生、卵生、湿生或化生,都不应该被分为三六九等。

花蝴蝶 | 布面油彩 | 80*60 cm | 2017

很显然,我们生活的现实不是摩尔笔下的《乌托邦》,但是罗威作为艺术家,超脱了他物理空 间的当下。他的画没有向现实的不平衡妥协,而是挑战了我们所谓的认知。就像叔本华说的, 艺术的力量在于它从某个程度上可以挣脱生活对我们的奴役,而罗威的艺术望向了一个更好的 未来。

概要

“力”是罗威在香港视觉艺术中心上演的一场视觉大戏,他的画豪迈充满气势,生动又如洪 水,创造一个又一个巨大的漩涡,让人天旋地转,卷入一股无以言表的情绪之中。罗威大画幅 复活的竟是一些只有短暂生命周期的微小生物,比如蚊子的幼虫——孑孓,比如蝴蝶,比如 各类草本。艺术家描绘的美不仅不带偏见,蚊子可以和蝴蝶一样美,更是展现了任何生命在自 然界中一样的规律,孵化、成长、羽化,都是我们要经历的生命道路。本次展览“力”由王仁 龙策划,与 2017 年 8 月 16 日至 8 月 20 日举行。

Power: Luo Wei

Anyone would be speechless when standing in front of the works by Luo Wei. His paintings have the power of a black hole, drawing people in without any notice. The brushstrokes are imposingly wild and the colours expansively alive, all of which are revived on his hugecanvasses. Luo Wei’s recent solo exhibition, Power, at Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre is atheatrical performance in which you can see the forms dance, struggle and transform. His artworks say more than words can express and it is the power of his art.

While you recover from the initial shock, you will discover he has painted more than mere energy and emotion. The forms gradually emerge from his canvasses into something identifiable. This part resembles the leg of mosquito while that part resembles the wings of butterflies. Indeed, what fill his works are life forms like mosquitos, dragonflies, butterflies and plants. But how did he start and what inspired his creations?

By accident, Luo Wei acquired a few photographs of mosquitos and to his surprise he discovered how beautiful their forms could be. Then a series of paintings sprang from his studios. Although he started by transforming what considered to be conventionally ‘ugly’ into something ‘beautiful’, what really infatuates him is the gap between our conceptionand the truth – if there were any truth. What is the cause of our dislike of mosquitos? Is our conception a misinterpretation of the species?

Despite our notions, feeding-on-blood is de facto their mechanism of survival assigned by Mother Nature. Their insane speed of breeding is only to make up for their short-lasting life cycle. In Nature, every species has its assigned place, humans likewise. Mosquitos take what they need from vertebrates such as humans and humans take what they need from other species. Mosquitos try to maximise their sense of existence in their assigned time. We humans, too, try to make the most of our lives, only in different forms.

What Luo Wei ́s paintings present are not only the undiscovered beauties in life but also the undisputed roles played by different members of Nature. His dragonflies, butterflies, plants, and parrots are no different from his mosquitoes in essence; sometimes shown in theprocess of hatching, sometimes growing, and sometimes metamorphosing...The forms of life painted by Luo Wei have the poetic qualities of Tagore’s lines “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers and death like autumn leaves.”

Although Luo Wei is inspired by Nature, his works are also highly political, commenting directly on the society we live in. The objects of his paintings – butterflies, flowers, parrots or dragonflies regardless – are so alive that they easily break free from the physical limits of the frames and thus are transformed into subjects in their own rights. What they stand for isDemocracy with a capital ‘D’ – one of the most important guidelines under which feminist movements, LGTBQ movements and anti-racist movements take ground. In the context of Eastern philosophy, what Luo Wei painted is the non-distinction of different sentient beings found in many Buddhist texts, irrespective of their forms of birth (birth from an egg, birth from a womb, birth from moisture or birth by transformation).

The world we live in is far from utopic, but Luo Wei, as an artist, sees beyond the real world. His canvasses do not yield to the chaos and unbalance of life but strive to challenge our unjustifiable conceptions and prejudices. Just as Schopenhauer sees the power of arts in their breaking – at least to some degree – from the servitude to life, Luo Wei ́s art serves to the end of a better reality.

Summary

Power is a “theatrical performance” on canvasses by Luo Wei at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. His brushstrokes are imposingly wild and the colours expansively alive, creating a succession of whirlpools drawing people into an unspeakable centre of emotions. What LuoWei’s huge canvasses have revitalised, possibly to people’s surprise, are small life forms of short-lasting life cycles, such as the larvae of mosquitos, butterflies, and plants. Luo Wei’s art is unprejudiced; mosquitos can be as beautiful as butterflies. His art also shows the universal laws of Nature under which all of us need to go through the stages of birth, growth and metamorphosis. This exhibition, Power, is curated by Sam Wong and lasts from 16 to 20 Aug 2017.