With all the ingredients of a Laitong painting present - the black lines, the drips, the marks, the layering of colours – all ascribing to the spontaneity and intuitive nature of his paintings, the new works present an arena of raw emotions and action in a distinctive mixture of subfusc and vivid colours.
Laitong paints like nature itself, placing the smooth against the rough and where the message is contemplative and subtle. The views are mysterious, often appearing as monoliths suggesting a deep ancient power, whilst some convey more whimsical eerie attributes, all however with a definite sense of push and pull in his art, the ying and the yang. Lines move across, whilst in some canvasses, lines converge inwards and in others furiously propel out of the canvas.
Jagged, twirling and twisting lines weave between planes of colours, some painted and others left to the unpredictability and chance of the painting process, planes that resemble foregrounds and backgrounds, floating, hovering and some even captured in their stillness giving depth and shifting dimensionalities in the paintings that hint of a looming horizon edge.
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With the exception of one black and white painting, Laitong uses an array of colours with a prevalent emphasis on blue which appears in various shades in the new paintings. For me, the blue suggests ventilation, emanating and illuminating shapes and forms as if the works were breathing in a way, like the air and light that make up our landscape.
The result is atmospheric, as sizes of forms and shapes distorts upon the gaze. Similarly colours intensify and the overlapping of colours and the juxtapositioning of textures give rise to the awareness of space and brightness – validating Laitong’s mastery of incorporating the best elements of lyrical abstraction.
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