Still Life No.592, 2017
Acrylic on Paper
23” x 18″
Yu He framing them in a way where her medium of choice—generally, ’s paintings capture the complexity of everyday phenomena, the quick-drying colorations of acrylic—lends her subject-matter a kind of of plasticity and directness, similar to the actual scenes she takes as her point of inspiration.
Continuing the venerable tradition of still-life painting, one sees in Yu He’s works only the essential aspects of what is authentically necessary to contemplate the objects she depicts. Flowers, carafes, and teacups emerge from almost abstract backdrops, allowing the eye to decipher the geometry of space purely by means of color and shape.
A notable feature of Yu He’s artistry is the economy of means she puts to use. Not a single brushstroke is wasted—every gesture and application of paint reveals an essential aspect of the subjects depicted. In every stroke, a proportional melding of color and texture takes place. Even when rendering clouds, only a few quick brushstrokes are used to render a complete, experiential sense of depth and form. Ultimately, what viewers see re-created before them is only a heightened consciousness of what they actually perceive in the everyday world around them.