Lu Cong is known for his striking portraits, whether rendered in oil, watercolor, colored pencil, or all three. His latest work toys with form, blending textures, tools, and styles to create evocative pieces. The artist was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
“Lu’s style pays homage to 18th century Romantics, yet is unmistakably conceived in and relevant to the contemporary era,” the gallery Quidley & Company says. “His portraits do more than simply capture the physical and emotional state of the subject; they establish the complicated psychological interactions that ensue when one comes face to face with the sensual, inexplicable, and unsettling. Today Lu is considered one of the distinctive young artists working in the American West.”
The Shanghai-born artist came to the U.S. as an 11-year-old, later studying biology at University of Iowa and then humanities at University of Colorado before embarking on his career in art.
Ai Yamaguchi’s paintings combine traditional Japanese influences and notes of contemporary and pop iconography. Her work has a particularly feminine focus, finding both grace and strength in manga-influenced characters, often juxtaposed with geometric and off-kilter forms. The artist was last mentioned on HiFructose.com 
Though gorgeously rendered, Chester Arnold’s paintings don’t idealize the state of nature. It depicts how, despite humanity’s best efforts, the Earth endures the accumulation of humanity’s waste and development. Cascading piles of tires and trash becomes their own mountainous formations.
Setting soft and supple nudes against graphic patterns and textures, Brooklyn-based painter 
Currently on view at