Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Mo Di’s Surreal, Ghostly Paintings

The figures in Mo Di’s oil paintings on canvas appear as apparitions and transient, between reality and a dream. In her latest works, these surreal narratives reflect on femininity and life's stages. The artist has her first solo show in Shanghai in the upcoming "My Dream is a Cage" at FQ Projects. The show runs from April 22 through June 30 at the gallery.

The figures in Mo Di’s oil paintings on canvas appear as apparitions and transient, between reality and a dream. In her latest works, these surreal narratives reflect on femininity and life’s stages. The artist has her first solo show in Shanghai in the upcoming “My Dream is a Cage” at FQ Projects. The show runs from April 22 through June 30 at the gallery.



FQ Projects notes how the artist’s been using a few particular elements in her works: “Her personal style is particularly reflected in her use of light whether it is the strong contrast of light and darkness in ‘The Entrance of Dream and Monologue,’ the shaky light in ‘Ritual’ or the halo spreading the whole image in ‘Lost River,’” the gallery says. “Over the last two years, symmetry and mirroring have been often used, as in the works ‘My Dream is a Cage’ and ‘Wonderland.’ Her vision is extremely dreamlike, inviting viewers to go inside, into a infinite deep space. We fear of falling in, yet do not want to escape.”

One could also note that though much of the work continues fanciful qualities, there’s also a sense of loss and melancholy that runs throughout. Even in the monochromatic works, in their sparseness, a playful game feels both dutiful and somewhat bleak.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Canadian artist Mathieu Laca crafts oil paintings that use texture and abstractions that toy with the conventions of portraiture. Whether it’s famous subjects or the vague everyman or everywoman, the artist packs both meticulous, odd flair and personality into each of the paintings. He's given this treatment to anyone from Henry David Thoreau and Albert Einstein to historical arts figures like Vincent Van Gogh.
Italian painter Alessandro Sicioldr crafts dreamlike, engrossing oil paintings that use the human body as an unsettling vessel. In his latest works, in particular, a bleakness is present, as barren backdrops host his creatures. He was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
When painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo portrayed figures made out of every objects, fruits, and vegetables, he presented the idea of life as living riddle or jigsaw puzzle. Living and working in Warsaw, Poland, Ewa Prończuk-Kuziak expresses a similar fascination with life in her paintings of figures in magical rearrangements. "My source of inspirations are fairy tales, dreams, my own experiences and stories from childhood," she says. Working primarily in oil paint, her ongoing "The Still Life Series" depicts rainbow-colored visions of animals that are made out of materials.
Australian artist Rodrigo Luff's paintings of women in luminous realms take us back to a more innocent time before Eve bit into the forbidden apple. Previously featured here on our blog, the Sydney based artist finds his inspiration in an array of artists, science and nature, from the electric colors of the Northern Lights to fantastical worlds created by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Luff's goddess-like characters are not visitors into this magical place, but feel right at home among flocks of owls, deer and other creatures of the forest. "I’m interested in the way we have always sought a connection to the natural world, and how that liminal, mysterious and wild realm reflects those uncharted dimensions within our psyche," he says.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List