Shyh-Charng Lo: Forms of Nature - Landscape Paintings
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Art Beatus 610-808 Nelson St, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2H2
Shyh-Charng Lo, "October 31, 2016," 2016
oil on canvas, 48" x 36"
Opening Reception on Friday, July 7, 3 - 6pm
Artist Shyh-Charng Lo will be in attendance at the reception.
Art Beatus (Vancouver) Consultancy Ltd is very pleased to present returning gallery artist Shyh-Charng Lo in his solo exhibition of oil paintings, Forms of Nature. Since moving to Vancouver nearly three decades ago, Shyh-Charng Lo, a self-taught artist, has developed a distinctly recognizable style of landscape painting using scenic vistas around his residence in the Point Grey area as both visual and emotional inspiration.
Serene, atmospheric, and sometimes a little dreamy, Shyh-Charng Lo's paintings are filled with ubiquitous mountains, sky, and water using a palette of muted and pastel colours and softly blended brushstrokes resulting in pared down details of the objects until they are almost abstract. The perspective of the paintings seem to position the artist himself as a quiet, meditative, and thoughtful observer of the landscape having an inner dialogue between himself and his surroundings.
Devoid of any people or animals, Lo's paintings sometimes include trees and shrubs from a neighbour's yard and occasionally, we catch a tiny corner of a neighbour's roof peeking through the trees. However, it is the mountains and the water which from a distance look like staggered layers of beautifully torn coloured tissue paper that is the artist's main preoccupation. According to Lo, “Mountains and water have become a metaphor for a mixture of my childhood memories and a man's nostalgia.” The oil paintings do convey a sense of nostalgia but do not make visual reference to any particular time period; the only reference to time is the title of each work which Lo names according to the day that he starts painting the piece, marking the genesis of the work.
Born in Nagano, Japan and raised in Taiwan, Shyh-Charng Lo has a Bachelor and a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Archaeology as well as a Master of Museum Studies. After working at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto for about a decade, Lo moved to Vancouver to become a full-time a artist. Since then, he has exhibited extensively across the Pacific in Canada and throughout Asia as well as publishing several catalogues of his work. Lo's work can be found in public collections in Canada, USA, Singapore and Taiwan.