Yezi Lou's Paintings Treat Memory as an Unreliable Visual Structure
Yezi Lou's paintings explore memory as an unstable visual structure shaped by migration, time, and displacement. Her work features cheap figurines, plastic toys, and decorative remnants that carry histories of desire and failed promises. In 'Windows' (2023), a Pikachu-like figure appears grotesque and soulless, contrasting with a realistically painted child whose expression suggests estrangement. Lou's practice moves through Chinese and American contexts, treating linguistic failure as productive. Her 2024 exhibition 'Corner of My Eye' in Long Beach, US, showcased her cinematic cropping and intimate yet withheld figures. Lou defends opacity as a form of truth, resisting the demand for legible identity. Her ambiguity protects complexity, asking viewers to stay with incomplete images and partial memories.
Key facts
- Yezi Lou's paintings treat memory as an unstable visual structure.
- Her work features cheap figurines, plastic toys, and decorative remnants.
- In 'Windows' (2023), a Pikachu-like figure appears grotesque and soulless.
- The child in 'Windows' is painted with realism, expressing estrangement.
- Lou's practice moves through Chinese and American contexts.
- She treats linguistic failure as a productive space.
- Her exhibition 'Corner of My Eye' was in Long Beach, US in 2024.
- Lou defends opacity as a form of truth in her paintings.
Entities
Artists
- Yezi Lou
Institutions
- A/W Space
- XELA
Locations
- Nanjing
- China
- Long Beach
- United States