Contemporary by Angela Li is proud to present “Mystified”, the third Hong Kong solo exhibition of Chinese artist Lv Shanchuan. The exhibition features paintings from two of his latest series, Flowers and Skeleton.

The flower is a symbol of organic vitality, and a schema capable of infinite change and allegory. Meanwhile, the skeleton has opposite connotations. The two often appear together both in art history and current popular culture. Lv Shanchuan has imbued the flower motif with the conceptuality of painting, and the normally light flower is transformed to become heavier than most canvases can bear.

Beneath this spectacle of flowers of epic proportions, there lies the seed of violence. Its inner energy seems ready to burst forth at any moment. The combination of skeletons and flowers is a nod to classic art history, as well as a continuation of the artist’s probing of image and society of the spectacle, depictions of the decay and disintegration within the depths of the spectacle of capital that reveal the humanistic laments that lie beneath the flourishing surface.