Yen Yu Lu, who has always been interested in capturing the expressions and forms of human anatomy, is devoted to exploring the designs of visual representation. Through transforming and reassembling, she shapes her creations into anomalous figures that share a resemblance between humans and inanimate objects. Her works blur the previously established rule of the object boundary as they constantly transfigure themselves to reflect their observers' immediate mental states. From Mar. 21 to May 5, 2020, Soka Art will be hosting Yen Yu's latest solo exhibition, Two Souls. Aside from following her previous style to create surreal anomalous creatures, Yen Yu also incorporated the element of symmetry and duality as her creative inspirations with which she expresses the inner turmoil, contradiction, opposition, and consolidation of her mind.

Yen Yu is an artist with extraordinary skill in realism with which she supports her boundless imagination. She created many unique works to record and re-evaluate the minuscule thoughts from her life and to interpret the harmonious balances of the human's inner presence as its essences shifted. Yen Yu graduated from The Graduate Institute of Applied Arts- Ceramic Division. In 2017, she received The Ceramics Creative & Avant-garde Awards from the Taiwan Ceramics Award. She was also an artist-in-residence in many countries including the United States, Japan, Netherlands, Finnland. It opened her up to a new horizon to create ceramic arts.

In this series of works, the viewer can see the main keynote that is united by black, white, and grey. Each art piece accentuates the pure aesthetic power of shape through its form, lighting, and shadow. As her sculpting method, Yen Yu utilizes the flexibility of the clay to knead many ripping designs that resemble shards. Then, she applies dark-colored ceramic glazes on her works, which not only add textures and ornamental qualities to the silky white designs but also instill a layer of depth and flow to her tranquil ceramic pieces. The dark volume beats like an imprisoned soul, and, similar to a shadow hiding from the sun, it can only be perceived when attaching to a subject. In Reflection II, a pair of symmetrical stag heads vertically opposes their other half. Black and white stretch outward as if they are drawn by an unknown force. The top black stag head seemingly dominates the bottom white stag head. In Reflection II, the winding antlers, that were naturally defensive and decorative, convey a meticulous plantlike quality. Resembling sprouting branches, they silently explore the gradual shifts and unions between humans and nature.

The artistic process directly reveals the inner mind. The flow of design reflects the artist's self-consciousness and its relationship to the outside world. A person's multifaceted inner mind constantly fuses and changes.  Yen Yu attempts to portray subject matter that long surpassed the boundary between the material and conceptual. She doesn't ruminate on the compositional style but attends to the most genuine mental state of men that hides behind their many emotional expressions.

During Two Souls -Yen Yu Lu Solo Exhibition, Sokka Art will invite Yen Yu to the exhibition on April 11. There, she will be creating artworks from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Art aficionados will be able to observe her artistic process and enjoy the simplest form of clay before it became a piece of art. We welcome everyone with this rare opportunity to visit the gallery to appreciate Yen Yu’s tranquil yet mystical creations.