“My pictures stem from a drop of water": Liang Fu's serene paintings are full of dreamlike possibility

While we’re asleep, astral apparitions and images wash over us in our dream world. When we wake up, we may try to recall them, but they ultimately slip away. The work of Paris-based Chinese artist Liang Fu is as if someone has found those images, held on to them and transformed them in to art.

Fu's paintings may seem from another realm, but they actually come from the water. “My pictures stem from a drop of water, because water is what causes the pigment to pervade the thickness of the canvas,” Fu tells It’s Nice That. “There is a blurring of my subjects’ figurative dimension, like a mixing of the interior, the exterior, the visible, the invisible, the presence and the absence of things.” For Fu, it’s the pigments on an unprimed canvas that diffuse to form shapes and figures that resemble the human form (or close enough).

Part of what makes Fu’s work extra special is at how it rewards repeat viewings. “The viewer’s understanding of the picture oscillates, it remains elusive and changing,” the artist explains. “My work evolves figuration, it focuses mainly on exploring a universe built with and on symbols, populated by elements related to spirituality, geography, mineralogy, light and sensuality.” These elements generate images with a sense of openness to them; “pictures that spurt the imagination of the viewer into action,” says Fu. In doing so, Fu encourages the viewer to come to their own conclusions about what they’re seeing. “In that way, my work process is akin to a slow meditation, a spell of grounding silence, a way to bear witness to the passing of time,” he concludes.