Li Chevalier
Gravitation Waves
2020

About the Item

Franco-Chinese or Sino-French, Li Chevalier employs Chinese ink in an original way, to create shadowy and raid landscapes / non-landscapes, set on a background of chalky streaks and minute glimmers which emit nocturnal vibrations and recurrent stains, in the manner of the « controlled accident » of Toshimitsu Imai. The field of vision widens, flickers and closes in again on zones sometimes mineral, other times starry, under the unpremeditated assault of ink, sometimes associated with acrylic, with sand or as collages, all of which the artist’s thinking hand orchestrates with sweeping gestures of controlled effervescence. At times we seem to perceive a vague silhouette emerging from a hazy mist, or perhaps a lonely Christian cross bent over by the breeze, evocative of a Breton Pardon ceremony. At other times, an aquatic, or even laval, impression emanates beyond the frame. At other moments, there is an approach to a muffled mobile abstraction with subtle zebra-streaked creases and phosphores- cent glimmers, evoking an environment of imminent danger. But in every case what prevails is an atmosphere, a presence. There is a sort of melancholy, a deceptive distance, but above all a true mastery. They are essentially evocative, these grave and secretive images rooted in nature, but of a quintessential nature, belonging only to their author. We are left in no doubt that Li Chevalier, rather than giving in to the temptation of bridging a way between East and West, has created a world, her world. At the intersection of two opposing universes: one imbued with the wisdom of her original China, and one punctuated by random backlashes from her Western experience, Li Chevalier assumes this “entre deux “, to express her special relationship to art and nature. To embark on her journey, she chose Chinese ink as her medium, attacking the white of her canvas, freeing the feverish percussion of her “collage” and the studied scale of her vaporous forms. In doing so, by revealing the spontaneity of her hand and her thoughts, she lays bare her inner gaze. So, in the twilight atmosphere that leads to dreams, everything in her paintings seems to float, to develop in scarred traveling masses, in moving and frayed perimeters, which endlessly merge with the infinite. The Beijing born artist has never given up on interpreting reality, but she doubts appearances, so her images float in the world of semi abstraction, fragmented and coated with a contrasting blur. She is obviously a follower of "less is more", in that she cultivates an extreme economy of means, be it in the allusive austerity of the layout or in the projection of her carefully controlled moves as she mixes ink water and acrylic on the platform of her universe. Within this framework bathed in silence and solitude, suddenly emerge the vestiges of an abandoned barrier, or the veiled skeleton of a bench lost on a shore, then we believe we can distinguish some sort of precariously balanced ladder, caught up in a luminous halo, or is it the indecisive shadow of one or more silhouettes, or the buttresses of a forgotten fortress, emerging from the dotted matrix of non-colors? In short, what we see, “almost nothing” would certainly please Jankélévitch, and yet everything is there. Li Chevalier is indeed this painter of familiar strangeness, whose rare work continues to imprint our imagination, long after we departed.

Creator:
Li Chevalier (Chinese)
Creation Year:
2020
Dimensions:
Height: 25.2 in (64 cm)Width: 25.2 in (64 cm)
Medium:
Ink,Mixed Media
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Miami, FL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1369124722
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