　　于是，她尝试在一种新媒介“合成纸”上去寻找这种答案，过程缓慢而又艰涩。在陌生的纸张上，她结合了丙烯、中国颜料、墨的特性，留下既不讨巧他人、也不炫耀自己技法的作画痕迹。面对密集簇拥的建筑，甚至如同笨拙的孩童用上了直尺，耗费近两个月的时间来完成一幅《窗外通往新泽西》作品，只是在衡量着绘画这一“描绘”的意义。在罗敏深远意境的美学中，她的作品更为趋向写意的表达，构成了独特的张力。而人性化依旧是罗敏作品中的精神灵魂，不变的是她对事物背后的隐喻意义的追求，和用这种平实的绘画方法强化这隐喻的力量。

　　米兰昆德拉曾说：“表面是清晰明了的谎言，背后却是晦涩难懂的真相。”罗敏的新作，以一种干净洗练的色彩与生动的形态开启故事的开端，促使我们深入的去读取画作背后隐喻的语言。她用女性艺术家独有的细腻、充满温情的手法，诠释了对这个熙来熙往繁华都市中遇见的孤独、寂寥的另一面，或许透过这些现实的存在表象，往往被人忽视的一面才更为真实。一如日常的生活中她对自己的内在反省，那一只因为失误操作而被她偷偷替换的《绿水壶》，看似幽默的自嘲了她试图掩饰自己失误的一刻，谁说又不是对现实的一种隐喻?

　　罗敏，这位成熟的当代艺术家，她恪守内心的理想信念。在她的绘画中充满了她对生活那种鲜活的感受，留下了经过她的感觉和记忆过滤过的景象。她以一种回归艺术最本质的态度，来唤醒人们内心对世界的再一次的重新审视。她又一次向我们展现了，绘画其实是种心灵的自由，同样，这也是艺术与人的自由。

2020.12.7

随记

文 / 罗敏

　　2020年是一道魔咒，从年初到年末，人类从大慌乱中开始，而后是席卷全球……一切的恶都浮出水面，反思和忏悔只是假象，伤疤会好的，痛比伤忘得更快。好吧，尽情发挥，假想我们真的站在了游戏高潮。

　　此时我抽离于一个遥远的角落，从清晨到日落，最是喜欢那无人时的街道和寂寥的码头，没有风格，没有修饰。我用简单的语言和陌生的纸，俯身在洁净的玻璃窗边去仔细描绘。“描绘”这个动词有多土呀!但那是我年少时经常使用的，所以我不嫌弃。用这种方式画房画街画海水，画码头边的少年与狗，他们是这个凄清世界的最好，我由此去找回理想的开端。

　　绿色的壶是一个意外。儿子从LA买回一只和家里完全相同的黑色电咖啡壶，价格不菲，但在一个月内，我把这两只电壶都盛满水，错位地放在旁边的天然气炉上点燃了。完全相同的荒诞错误我竟在短短的时间内犯了完全一样的两次，而且两次看到燃烧起来的锅底，我都同样头脑一片空白不知何故。我惊愕于自己的错误，两次都是第一时间把烧坏的壶扔掉，抹去一切作案现场，心虚不已。事后我买回一只绿色的烧水壶，放在那个作案的燃气火头位置，看上去一切完美，真相彻底消失，再也不会有错。其实每每看到绿铁壶我就想起这个案底，当然，一切都已掩藏和销毁，因为真相实在不利于健康，岁月需要静好。

2020.11.29

Min Luo in New York

By Rui LI

The year 2020 is like a pause but-ton, encour-ag-ing peo-ple to slow down in our fast-paced world and take time to be present with them-selves. We become “observers” to this world as well as our lives. The ratio-nal exam-i-na-tion of “observ-ing” implies the neu-tral-i-ty atti-tude. The world needs to repair itself amidst dis-as-ters. Sim-i-lar-ly, art also needs to go back to the ide-al begin-ning. The spir-i-tu-al realm that rep-re-sents a sense of belong-ing is what artist Min Luo has been seek-ing for these years.

Dur-ing the quar-an-tine, Luo pays extra atten-tion to New York’s archi-tec-tures, sky-lines, piers, and the pedes-tri-ans, as if the alien-ation from the out-side world brings her calm-ness. She has been expe-ri-enc-ing the changes of the out-side world and with-in her-self, explor-ing the essence of the art. The jour-ney of explo-ration is not only extract from the West-ern canon, tech-niques, and per-son-al style, but also dis-card from the prej-u-diced ide-ol-o-gy.

Attempt-ing to find an answer, she tried to cre-ate arts on a new medi-um – syn-thet-ic paper. The process was slow and dif-fi-cult. On this unfa-mil-iar paper, she com-bined the char-ac-ter-is-tics of acrylic, Chi-nese pig-ments, and ink, leav-ing traces of paint-ing that nei-ther flat-tered oth-ers nor showed off her tech-niques. In the cre-ation of dense-ly clus-tered build-ings in New York, she even used a ruler, like a clum-sy child. It took her near-ly two months to com-plete a piece of “Out-side the Win-dow Lead-ing to New Jer-sey,” only to mea-sure the con-cept of the depic-tion. A nat-ur-al mas-ter of the artis-tic con-cep-tion of aes-thet-ics, Luo express-es rep-re-sen-ta-tion through her unique free-hand brush-work. Human-iza-tion is still the core of her art-works. Despite the changes in media, what remains unchanged is her pur-suit of the metaphor-i-cal mean-ings behind any sub-ject and the uti-liza-tion of sim-ple yet pow-er-ful paint-ing meth-ods that strength-en the metaphor-i-cal lan-guages.

As writer Milan Kun-dera once said, “On the sur-face, an intel-li-gi-ble lie; under-neath, the unin-tel-li-gi-ble truth.”Min Luo’s new series presents us with the sto-ry of clean and refined col-ors and vivid forms, only urg-ing us to deci-pher the depth of the metaphor-i-cal lan-guages under-neath the paint-ing. Using the del-i-cate yet gen-tle tech-niques that espe-cial-ly speak to female artists, she express-es the lone-li-ness that she has encoun-tered in this pros-per-ous city. Per-haps only under-neath the sur-face of real-i-ty shows the often-over-looked truth. Just like how she self-reflects in her life, the “Green Ket-tle” that was secret-ly replaced by her because of her mis-takes in burn-ing the oth-er two ket-tles seem-ing-ly humor-ous self-dep-re-cat-ing moment when she tried to bury her mis-takes. Isn’t this anoth-er metaphor for real-i-ty?

A mature con-tem-po-rary artist, Luo abides by her inner ide-ol-o-gy. Her paint-ings are full of her vivid feel-ings of life, depict-ing the scenes fil-tered by her mem-o-ries and emo-tions. With an ongo-ing search of return-ing to the essence of art, she awak-ens people’s inner world to reex-am-ine the out-side world. She demon-strates to us that paint-ing can be an expres-sion of free-dom from the soul, as well as free-dom of art and peo-ple.

2020.12.7

Notes

By Min Luo

The year 2020 seems like a curse, from the begin-ning of the year till the last few days. It start-ed as a pan-ic among mankind, then swept the whole world… All evils sur-faced, regrets and repen-tance are just illu-sions. Pain is for-got-ten where scars heal. Sure, let’s get it – just imag-ine we are stand-ing still at the cli-max of the game.

Mean-while, I was pulling away from a far cor-ner. From sun-rise to sun-set, I pre-fer emp-ty streets and lone-ly piers when the city is asleep with no peo-ple wan-der-ing. No styles. No dec-o-ra-tions. Using sim-ple lan-guage and unfa-mil-iar paper, I leaned over my win-dow to depict. How cliché is the verb depict! But it was used fre-quent-ly in my child-hood, so I don’t dis-like it. In this way, I depict-ed hous-es, streets, seas, as well as the teenagers and dogs on the piers. They are the best in this bleak world, so I could trav-el to where all this start-ed.

The green ket-tle was an acci-dent. My son bought back a black cof-fee mak-er from LA that was exact-ly the same as the one at home. They were not cheap. With-in a month, I burned both ket-tles by fill-ing them with water and plac-ing them on the heat-ed stove, which burned them. I made this absurd mis-take twice in a short amount of time. My mind went blank both times. I was amazed by my mis-take. Both times, I threw away the burnt ket-tles as if I was eras-ing evi-dence from a crime scene. I felt guilty. After I burned the sec-ond ket-tle, I bought a green ket-tle and replaced it on the exact same spot where I com-mit-ted the “crime.” Every-thing seemed to be per-fect, and the truth is buried. There would be no more mis-takes. How-ev-er, every time I land my eyes on the green iron pot, I think of the “crime.” Of course, no evi-dence can be found, because there’s some truth is not need-ed in a peace-ful and healthy life.

2020.11.29

关于艺术家/ABOUT THE ARTIST

罗敏，中国当代艺术家，曾在亚洲和欧洲多个国家举办过个展和联展。

近期个展：

　　2020年 “观看” 纽约时代画廊美国2018年 “幸存的诗意” 米格画廊巴塞罗那2017年 “它界之花——罗敏个展” 马拉加阿拉劳林罗宾松文化中心西班牙2016年 “看见时光——罗敏作品展” 復言社北京2015年 “归心两畅——罗敏油画作品展” 北京画院美术馆北京2013年 “路过既成为风景——罗敏纸本绘画展” 今日美术馆北京2011年 “日常之镜——2011 罗敏绘画展” 今日美术馆北京

Min Luo , Chi-nese Con-tem-po-rary Artist, has held solo and group exhi-bi-tions in mul-ti-ple coun-tries in Asia and Europe.

Recent Solo Exhi-bi-tions:

2020“Observe”, Timearts Gallery, Amer-i-ca2018 “The Sur-viv-ing Poet-ry”, Miguel Mar-cos Gallery, Barcelona, Spain2017 “Flow-ers of Anoth-er World–Luo Min Solo Exhi-bi-tion”, Robin-son Cul-tur-al Cen-ter of Alhau-rín de la Torre, Mala-ga, Spain2016 “See-ing the Time–Exhibition of Luo Min′s Art-works”, Fuyan Asso-ci-a-tion, Bei-jing2015 “Back to the Heart–Luo Min′s Oil Paint-ing Exhi-bi-tion”, Bei-jing Art Muse-um, Bei-jing2013 “Pass-ing by, It Becomes a Scenery–Luo Min′s Paper Art Exhi-bi-tion”, Today Art Muse-um, Bei-jing2011 “Mir-ror of Dai-ly Life–Luo Min′s Paint-ing Exhi-bi-tion in 2011”, Today Art Muse-um, Bei-jing　

26号码头No.1 26 pier No.1 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 12x9 in 2020

26号码头No.2 26 pier No.2 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 12x9 in 2020

26号码头No.3 26 pier No.3 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 9x12 in 2020

26号码头No.4 26 pier No.4 纸本水彩 Paper Watercolor9x12 in 2020

窗外通往新泽西The Window Leads to New Jersey 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 24x36 in 12x9 in x10 2020

窗外通往新泽西The Window Leads to New Jersey 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 12x9 in x10 2020

窗外通往新泽西The Window Leads to New Jersey 合成纸丙烯 Synthetic Paper and Propylene 24x36 in 2020

绿壶 Green Kettle 合成纸中国颜料和墨 Synthetic Paper + Chinese Pigment + Chinese Ink 18x24 in2020

绿壶 Green Kettle 合成纸中国颜料和墨 Synthetic Paper + Chinese Pigment + Chinese Ink 18x24 in 10x10 in x4 2020

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