Journeys to Recover Your Future – HSU Chang-Yu Solo Exhibition

From 2008 to 2012, Hsu Chang-Yu stayed in Brittany, France, where she developed her distinctive painting style. Images of horses, forests, wilderness or lakes are common in her art works. She repetitively combines these images to represent the “quietness” she felt and enjoyed while traveling abroad. The exquisite natural landscape depicted in her paintings attracts the viewers’ gaze throughout every transition of colors and allures the mind to stop in this beautiful world, which at the first glance looks very realistic.

Chang-Yu recklessly put herself into a Western world full of insecurity. Constant traveling and changing surroundings highlighted the purity of her inner essence, and allowed her to explore her true self. In her paintings, the mountains, water, and forests follow the three-dimensional rules of a realistic space, but there are moments when two-dimensional objects such as brightly colored dots or arcs are collaged in a large part of the image in order to emphasize the feeling of surrealism.

In her paintings, a horse often inhabits the very silent, almost magical landscapes. The horse is like a self-reflection of the artist. When the artist gets away from the tumult of city life, to places where there are no restraints, where she is free to enjoy creativity and is able to portray an idyllic landscape in a very subjective and emotional way.