Opening Reception:
Wednesday, November 12, 5-7 pm
Artist Talk:
5:45 pm
Simmons University presents Emerge: Mixed Media by Clara Lieu, from November 10—December 16 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 the Fenway in Boston. A reception from 5-7 p.m. will be held on Wednesday November 12, at which the artist will present a gallery talk at 5:45 p.m. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. The Gallery will be closed November 11 and 26-28.
Clara Lieu’s exhibition interprets her personal inward journey. She explores this in several media. Her drawings, prints and photography, constructed from her own three-dimensional sculpture all explicate her ideas. Her large-scale drawings almost overwhelm the viewer with their raw feeling. This work is a journey of emotion—a tour de force of technical virtuosity and a tenacious examination of her theme of self-discovery.
The work is complex and layered. Lieu’s drawings lead the viewer into a chaotic, shifting world—figures fight to be seen or erased. The intensity of the mark making echoes her inward struggles. These images are not for the faint-hearted.
Emerge no. 3 presents a looming central nude figure, but on either side of her—two faces and partial bodies seemingly stream like ghost souls from her sides. These four visages communicate highly charged emotional states while the central figure has very little affect. The swirling figures are like the Greek Furies, frightening the onlooker.
Lieu, like many contemporary artists, works her ideas out in more than one medium. She creates resin facemasks that she then theatrically lights and photographs. These images remind the viewer of the eighteenth-century sculptor, F. X. Messerschmidt’s intensive self-portraits of emotional states. They evoke the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) school of the Romantic age.
Trustman Art Gallery hours are 10 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Kyle Mendelsohn at (617) 521-2268 or find us on Instagram.