Painting Summer in Shōjo Manga Faces

Description

Following Liu Yin’s first exploration of nature in her 2023 presentation Spring, the artist returns to Kiang Malingue with a new exhibition, Summer. Her subversive paintings feature exaggerated, watery and sparkling eyes that create classic shōjo manga faces over flowers, leaves and fruits, transforming them into sentient, sensitive beings.

More than a dozen paintings are on view, organised into three chapters that increase in size and emotional intensity. The first series showcases fruit figures floating and frolicking in the water, adding a lively layer to the complex ecosystem. The second part features two large-scale works: Night Scene (2025), with a peach tree at night, and Blue Moon (2025), depicting a loving moon resting above a pond of water lilies, representing nighttime loneliness. The final section presents two diptychs that convey the most intense narratives. Waves (2024–2025) features looming waves with many faces, while Rocks (2025) depicts formidable rocks in the sea, emphasising the significance of emotivity and unfaltering resistance.