Ying Li returns to the Painting Center with new work that celebrates her characteristic ‘orgy’ of painterly painting. The subject matter remains as landscapes painted with the most tenuous of ties to depiction.  This has also been one of the most satisfying aspects of her art; the choice of dealing with figurative landscapes, painterly abstraction or both.  A few pieces add in a new element (at least for me) - a view suggesting a close up view of plants and flowers.  Unlike her other paintings, in which blue is a constant factor, these pieces give greater voice to other hues.  In these new pieces especially, Li gets at something akin to Monet’s last paintings from Giverny in which paint handling takes precedent over the subject matter and in so doing, only enhances and makes more real the latter.

The textures in this body of work are as wide and varied as with the color and subject matter.  In most cases Li’s signature style of a rough and

Ying Li, the Painting Center

Ying Li, the Painting Center

unkempt paint handling prevails.  Then all of a sudden you come upon a small jewel of a painting in which the color is muted as is the impasto; the surface remains raw but reductive (when 

Ying Li, the Painting Center