Poetic Dwelling

Grand Prize Winner, Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2023

The characteristics of Lo Chan Peng's work have always included delicacy, classical and contemporary elements, strong emotional impact, and a sense of mystery. His work "Poetic Dwelling" portrays a reclining woman from a completely flat perspective, unlike the usual top-down view when people observe someone lying down. In this work, the viewer's perspective feels more participatory, as if lying beside the subject. We don't know who she is, we don't know if it's morning or late at night, we don't know if she's about to wake up or fall asleep. All we can see is the moment she opens her eyes and gazes at something, but we still can't be sure if she's looking at something beyond the frame or just contemplating the air. The figure of the woman in the painting is both complete and fragmented. In certain areas - her shoulders, arms, and various parts - there are detached, drifting brushstrokes. Typically, paintings have many brushstrokes, but Lo Chan Peng's work eliminates most of them, preserving only these drifting forms. This gives us a sensation, at this very moment, similar to the flow of life or what we might describe as the dispersal of a soul. It imbues deliberate brushstroke elimination with meaning, as the hidden strokes resonate with the intentionally retained flowing brushstrokes. The edges of the canvas are piled with layers of pigment and smears. Lo Chan Peng once mentioned that during a low point in his life, he didn't know what to paint. So, he squeezed out paint every day, faced a blank canvas, and couldn't bring himself to paint all day. Finally, he couldn't bear to watch the paint gradually dry up, so he began smearing the edges of the canvas, layer by layer, day by day, like his diary. The mysterious and indescribable atmosphere has always been a hallmark of Lo Chan Peng's work. His art is challenging to explain but filled with tremendous vitality. His work has always been a form of communication with us, just not through language and words.