Jia Peng & Laila Azra: Invisible Paintings

Element Art Space presents ‘Invisible Paintings‘ a two-person exhibition by Chinese rising artist Jia Peng and Indonesian artist Laila Azra. This will be Jia Peng’s first show in Singapore.
‘Invisible Paintings’ is a unique collaboration between the two artists and will feature new, especially conceived paintings that explore the constant shift between visible and invisible realities, between surface and depth, and between present and past. Both artists in this exhibition have always pursued the abstraction of individual character and their practices deliver compelling takes on how nature and culture coexist and clash.
Captivated by the structure and movement of water, Jia Peng strives to project different contents on to the idea of invisibility or emptiness of water—render the invisible within the visible rather than to depict external appearances. Jia Peng’s multi-layered paintings display both additive and subtractive marks, as a way to represent the transition of a space, or element in nature, over time.
The Singapore based Laila Azra, imbues paint with emotional resonance yet at the same time restricts those emotions within the confines of her often indefinable and mysterious forms. She adapts gestural painting method where she uses her hands and body movement to drip, splash, and scrape on a canvas often positioned flat on the floor. This resulted in bold, rhythmic lines and texture-rich artworks, which are characterised by the weaving and interweaving layers of acrylic paint as well as her other chosen mediums.