RENEE LAI

My paintings explore barriers as a metaphor for private property, ownership, belonging, security, and fear. They work as a figurative topic, as a form that allows me to ask abstract questions about space but also as a material and visual exploration of line, structure, and repetition, all concrete elements that make up each work.

My barriers, conceived as the physical manifestation of inside and outside, are often translucent, painted in a reductive manner with an emphasis on the bare materiality of the surface. In my work, the weave, color, and texture of the support are integral elements, as much as any other drawn or painted imagery. The canvas palpably indexes my various gestures, marks, and pressures.

Line forms the structure of the work, carrying the trace of literal as well as implied time and motion. Because my lines are gathered in some places and spread apart in others, the energy of the work is focused. I use lines to set up a system for myself, and then I go back to find pleasure in the repetition of the action, focusing on the quality of the line and the tactility of the gesture to make a field of wobbly, delicate marks that quiver on the