MANGROVEGALLERY is pleased to present “Forbidden Fruit” Wu Li’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, which will feature oil paintings created by the artist over the past two years. The exhibition will open on September 10, 2022 and run through October 29, 2022.

With its genesis a mystery, an unnamed type of red fruits make repeated appearances in Wu Li’s paintings, red as fire, as if they are burning along the branches, while the objects in the paintings disperse or gather in twisted convulsions, shaking, trembling, defying any precise definition. The brush strokes that look like tadpole script amble across the picture; the curves, free and wild, whirl and twirl themselves into the shapes of the objects. This habit of painting that incorporates calligraphic elements gives a sense of flowing movement. Such a feature, combined with the unique articulation characteristics of oil paint, presents a sense of life that is not rigid, that is bold and unrestrained, even though a sense of movement is not the specialty of static images.