On September 27th, Tessar Lo (featured) will once again (see 2011, 2012) open a solo at Jaski Art Gallery in Amsterdam. The Indonesian-born and Toronto-raised painter will be bringing a new set of paintings and drawings collectively entitled Devices And The Virtues, all rendered in a colorful palette and radiating raw innocence. Seen throughout the work are common motifs like lush vegetation, jungle creatures, basketballs, boy characters, and other elements that give the new body of work coherence.
Lo talks about the themes behind the new work:
“All of my life, people have entrusted me with their stories: family folklore, their gossip, dreams, the mundane of their everyday. With time, I realize how all the little pieces of these stories fit together, how specific excerpts of lives and living I’ve encountered have actively combined with chance to create my own.
The shit part of this is that I inevitably participate in, and accumulate the weight of ritual, pain, guilt and regret of things past, but these are the necessities of the larger narrative. And as much as I’m moved to build my understanding of it by listening, I know what a waste it all would be if I couldn’t contribute to it in its telling.
However disjointed the parts may seem in their many guises, they come together clearly when there is effort to collect and watch patiently. I absorb and tell stories with my heart because after the cool, after the deflecting, we all know we must meet ourselves at night.”
Discuss Tessar Lo here.
