Not unlike the way a pearl grows inside a mollusk, wherein an irritant or parasite is gradually coated in a mineral called nacre, Amy Liu’s paintings comprise layers of oil pigment over underpaintings. This preparation technique dates to the early Renaissance, its first use attributed to Jan van Eyck, who added a monochrome glaze to the surface of panels to establish tonal values before building up the picture.
In her solo exhibition Pearled Chiaroscuro at Harper’s, Liu taps into the Renaissance in more ways than one. She highlights the convention of deep contrasts and bright highlights known as chiaroscuro, Italian for “light-dark.” It’s an aesthetic we see most famously in the works of Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Artemisia Gentileschi, and others, where rich shadows recede behind figures that are dramatically lit and sometimes appear to glow from within.
Liu focuses on women wearing embellished gowns and draped in elaborate jewelry, with an emphasis on pearls. She also invokes the spirit of a night at opera, drawing on her own background as a trained soprano. Rather than highlighting the identities of the figures, whether performers or spectators, the artist focuses on their elaborate and luxurious garments.
“Il Bacio di Venere,” for example, which translates to “The Kiss of Venus,” features an elaborate face covering with giant pearls and rubies, creating an impractical yet eerie, almost alien look. And in “Colei che Danza col Vento” (“She Who Dances with the Wind”) a cluster of the organic gemstones densely covers the eyes.
By concealing the women’s identities and viewing them through their sartorial choices, Liu explores how high fashion is a channel of not only status but one’s sense of self, where in turn, the garments literally and figuratively mask the person wearing them. “Figures are abstracted and their identities deliberately concealed, as if supporting the ornamentation rather than the other way around,” the gallery says.
Pearled Chiaroscuro continues through November 19 at Harper’s Apartment on the Upper East Side, New York City. See more on Liu’s Instagram.
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