In Search of Fantasia 追尋‧幻想曲 | Livy Leung 梁凱雅 & Isabella Mandelli

Galerie Koo is delighted to announce a joint exhibition “In Search of Fantasia” by Hong Kong artist Livy Leung and Italian artist Isabella Mandelli.  

Exhibition Period: 1^st to 29^th October 2022

Opening Reception: 1^st October 2022 (Saturday)
Time: 3-6pm

Art in a variety of mediums embodies the artist’s personal vision and imagination, conveying touching stories and composing beautiful melodies. Through different mediums, artists translate their objectivity and sensuality into their creations, interestingly enough, both artists coincidentally offered different perspectives of the world as they see it.

“In the process of creation, daily imaginations and fantasies are transformed into the work. As a result, it resonates strongly with the viewer and is therefore deeply rooted in their hearts.”

We often try to live under various challenges and pressures, gradually forgetting the seemingly mundane but indispensable everyday experiences, like the faint light of a star, which flickers in and out of existence, and only by slowing down can we quietly experience the beauty in it. In this exhibition, two female artists of different mediums are invited to communicate with each other, expressing the subtleties of the changes they observed and felt in their works, injecting their emotions into their creations, and manifesting the thoughts they encountered in their daily lives. The themes of the works focus on the expression of oneself and one’s state of mind, and the relationship between man and nature.

Mismatched elements in daily life have always intrigued Livy to construct a world between reality and personal fantasy. She recomposes her thoughts towards different observations and amplifies her imaginary world as a form of expression and self-indulgence within her art practice. Sometimes they are created through a song, a piece of writing, a journey, or her imagination of the future, which are then expressed through a medium that is familiar to her. By primarily using oil medium for painting, she filters the reality through flattening the space, using rough outlines and shapes, and vivid colours to create abstract intersections between the real and imaginary world.

As an artist, Isabella exercises her creativity immersed into a childlike bubble made up of harmony and fantasies. From the tip of her brush the Barabubbles come to life! A whole population of fantastic creatures, including Baraba, Oco, Finolu, Boda, each with their own peculiar personality traits. A chaotically peaceful explosion of watercolour shades; transparent bubbles as an ideal representation of our world; the dynamically harmonious equilibrium between nature and other fantastic creatures: these are some of the core elements of Isabella’s works, which made her paintings instantly recognizable.