Singaporean printmaker Lee Rui Xiang is bringing his phantasmagoric creations to Art Projects Gallery Hong Kong this spring with his first solo show in the city.“Beautiful Disaster” features the latest from Lee’s “It Was Beautiful While It Lasted” series, which according to a press release “explores themes such as entrapment versus freedom and vulnerability versus love while reimagining the delicate balance between the beautiful and the bizarre.”In works such as “The Odyssey,” 2015, where pirates, a shark straight out of “Jaws,” and mythological images like a winged skull come together in a visual free-association on Homer’s epic poem, visitors have the chance to experience Lee’s postmodern reimagination of the ancient art of printmaking.Lee’s work is characterized by the use of the lines and crosshatch associated with woodcuts and linocuts to render fantastical stylized images of characters from myths, comics, fantasy stories, and other aspects of popular culture. The artist adds dimensionality to his work by using elements of paper cutting and collage, and the occasional application of hand coloring.The titular work from the series, “It Was Beautiful While It Lasted,” 2015, is a masterpiece of amalgamation, referencing cultural touchstones from Warhol to Hieronymus Bosch. At the center of the print, two Supermans glower at each other.In an artist’s statement on his website, Lee describes the philosophy underpinning his art. “My works aim to challenge the viewers and audience to question about objectives in life and our roles in the society,” he writes. “Whether the decisions and actions that we make enable life to become more beautiful or is it just another disaster with a beautiful mask over it.”“Beautiful Disaster” runs May 7-29 at Art Projects Gallery in Hong Kong.
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