Laurence Bufflier

Le Progres Magazine,

Lyon, France

Magazine Review of Solo Exhibit in Lyon, 2006

 

At the frontiers of the visible

 

Katherine Chang Liu, American and of Chinese origin, is on exhibit for the first time in France. Her paintings, created with a mixture of techniques, weave together a web of interior spaces, both meticulous and chaotic, where you get lost with delight.

 

Once you pass the threshold of the "Cercle Optique" gallery, a pattern of clouds infiltrates the visitor's eye. Silver-grays, the masses move from one painting to another, without respite for the retina, incapable of analysis.

 

Then like zebras, thin lines spring to the surface, dig a furrow, an air hole. A layer underneath shows through the surface. A resurgence of satiny yellow, an explosion of red, an unfinished word, waiting. Crystals of conscience little by little touch and connect to form a small sensible galaxy. From then on the paintings sprout like as many minute parchments, almost organic. The eye looks closer. Imperceptible details become apparent, the symmetries organize themselves, the senses act, react, create meaning.

 

Laying bare the graffiti of the soul. Entomologist of the minute, the artist, delicately, makes us touch the mystery of attention, the birth of a vision.

 

From the fingers of the artist blaze without a doubt a multitude of influences. An eye and a technique of oriental influence mix with processes of simultaneous visions, dear to cubists and surrealists. Softened echos of Basquiat, Katherine Chang Liu's paintings fit in this archaeological vein that attempts to lay bare the graffiti of the soul.