Sharing a fascination for light with his compatriots Vermeer and Rembrandt, Dutch painter Wessel Huisman brings his depictions of light in the modern metropolis to Hong Kong’s Fabrik Gallery in the exhibition “The Color of Light.”Included in the show are a number of Asian urban landscapes in major cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing. Each landscape is identified by a specific date, for example Huismans’s 2016 piece “Beginning of March 1962, on a Tuesday Afternoon.” With this, the artist intends to evoke what he calls “light memories.”“Light can give you back your history, not only as a thought or memory but as a vital and intense experience...it strongly influences the sentiment with which you experience your reality,” Huisman explains.Reality within the paintings is altered by the way light shines off the structures of metal and glass, confusing the architectural consistency of the pieces, drawing the viewer in as the eye jumps from architectural features to the abstract streaks and squares that Huisman paints across his cities.Though he previously preferred a grayscale palette to portray the effect of light upon the city, in the paintings that make up “The Color of Light,” the artist has begun to experiment with reds and blues to influence what he calls the mood of the light.“Mood” seems an apt word, as the artist’s work almost anthropomorphizes light. “For the artist, Hong Kong’s architecture is like a stage where light changes, reflects, and bounces off myriad surfaces and angles creating a unique light panorama,” the show’s organizers note in a statement. Light in these works has a playful quality, a life of its own that gives Huisman’s compositions their impact.“The Color of Light” runs April 6-May 6 at Fabrik Gallery, in Hong Kong.
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