Eenvoudig: Levi Yu

• DateAugust 30, 2023
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ART CIRCLE GALLERY

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Eenvoudig: Levi Yu

eenvoudig (Dutch). simple; without ornament or decoration

Where art endeavors to reflect what is, what happens when an artist pushes back and paints what can be? Levi Yu takes upon a visual challenge to dig into the roots of his creative expression and to unravel it to its simplest, barest terms.

The Complicated Levi Yu

Unraveling the layers in Yu’s art is like peeling back and history behind its making. A son of a contemporary artist and a student of many artistic persuasions, Yu is every bit the artist he is owing to his multifaceted influences. “To arrive at who I really am as an artist, I want to empty my cup and start from there.” In search of his definitive style, Yu looks at the world differently by removing his preconceived standards and biases of art.

Distilled Abstraction

Levi Yu’s process is stripping scenic subjects down to the most basic elements of design: color, shapes, lines. What comes to mind is a pared back, minimalist approach, akin to the pared-back aesthetic of Dutch art movement De Stijl. However, the result here, is distinctively Yu: a visual language that is deceptively simple and uncomplicated, but the execution comes out as incredibly crafted, deliberate, and nuanced.

Simply Levi

Creating art with fewer, simpler elements is where Yu felt most creative, able to engage and learn about his landscape subjects with a fresher understanding. To him, he finds this process of deconstruction quite liberating. Stripped of decorative excess and expectations, Yu discovers this newfound artistic iteration the truest representative of himself. In search of the universal, he ultimately finds the personal on the canvas, now laid bare for everyone to experience.