Leo Gallery Hong Kong | Cécile Lempert Solo Exhibition

Leo Gallery is pleased to present Cécile Lempert’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong on 28 November 2024, following her successful debut exhibition, “Der Albtraum der Bienenkönigin”, at our Shanghai space in May this year. The show will showcase the artist's latest series of paintings.

 

Lempert's work is deeply intertwined with her immediate surroundings, focusing on specific psychological states and nuanced interpersonal relationships. Drawing inspiration from her family photo archives, she weaves together different segments of pictorial histories. Rather than merely highlighting the pleasant aspects, Lempert is more intrigued by contradictions and ambiguities, aiming to capture the emotional integrity of the scenes. “By combining different visual narratives and isolating individual pictorial elements, new narratives unfold that shift or even dissolve temporal and geographical references.”[1] Yet, these works retain a nostalgic ambiance.

 

In the exhibition, Lempert presents family portraits, establishing relationships of mutual observation and whispered secrets between the paintings through a penetrating gaze that traverses the canvas. "She discovers the fragility and reverence of life through the shifting gazes of the characters or animals in her paintings. The way she composes her work is reminiscent of mechanical imagery (photography or film), and the numerous movements across different works trigger a dialogue with each other."[2] The childlike forms of expression in certain works harmonize with the exquisite depiction of specific psychological states from an adult’s perspective. Juxtaposing ambiguous landscapes alongside the portraits, or what seems like distant white horses "intruding" into the family narrative, further diminishes the readability of the characters' gazes captured by the artist's brush, disrupting the boundary between reality and imagination. “Despite their intensity, spatial voids can be found, offering space for personal projections into the here and now.”[1]

 

[1] Miriam Bettin, "Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again" exhibition text
[2] He Xiao, “Polyphonic Resonance” exhibition text