FROM A DISTANCE, the paintings of Shanghai artist Ann New (adapted from her Chinese name Niu An) appear merely to render lithe female forms in soft, fluid lines. On closer inspection, these lines yield to violent brush work, scratched-out faces and contortions associated more with hysteria than bliss. This is the bewildering dichotomy New will try to explain during her first Hong Kong talk, on Friday. It's also the theme of her new show, Angel is Terrified, which opens next month at Mid-Levels' Chouinard Gallery HK/Sin Sin Fine Art.
In an attempt to capture the agony and ecstasy of modern urban life, New uses themes and subject matter that she says are both sweet and terrifying. 'I think young people living in big cities can really relate to this type of conflict,' she says. 'You see many people on the street, and yet you feel lonely all the time. So, young women try to transform themselves into angels. We use cosmetics and clothes to look perfect, and yet we're still broken in many ways.'
In an attempt to capture this take on life (equal parts optimistic and depressing), New painted a series of portraits on pastel backgrounds. She says viewers associate the background hues with makeup, fashion and the trappings of young urban beauties. But in the foreground, she paints unpolished faces, composed of rough brush strokes, representing the sad truth that often lies beneath a carefully manicured facade.
New says she gets the inspiration for such paintings from her immediate surroundings, which enables her to paint honestly and naturally. But viewers shouldn't be fooled by her professed organic approach to creation. New began a classical arts education at the age of five, and early on studied the works of painters such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon and Francesco Clemente. Although she's conscious of these influences, New says her work isn't derivative. Speaking of a large portrait with muscular brush strokes reminiscent of some of Bacon's later portraits, she says: 'I think everyone has favourites, and I can't ignore art, of course. But, naturally, some influences come out through my fingers.'
Her latest muse comes from literature rather than the visual arts. The poems of German writer Rainer Maria Rilke, who scratched out his lines in a dingy room on the Left Bank of Paris in the early 1900s, inspired the exhibition title Angel is Terrified. But unlike Rilke, New is no starving artist. Her large, well-kept apartment-cum-studio, off Shanghai's fashionable Huai Hai Road, is a testament to her eclectic style. It's at once refined and orderly, and yet spontaneous in its choice of colour and quirky furnishings.
New attributes much of her design sensibilities to the time she spent living and studying in Japan. She attended the Musashino Fine Arts Academy in Tokyo, where she focused on interior and industrial design, rather than painting. She later worked in an architectural firm, but soon gave it up. 'I knew I could do it,' she says. 'But I wanted to dedicate myself to things I enjoyed and could control, like painting.' In returning to art, New has made a conscious effort to work on the development of her oeuvre, rather than a business. She limits herself to a maximum of two shows a year.
For Angel is Terrified, New is working with fashion and jewellery designer Sin Sin, who started a collaboration with Chouinard Gallery in August. Sin Sin says artists need to focus on developing their work, rather than on profits. 'Some artists I've met become like a machine, with commissions everywhere,' she says. 'I wonder, 'Are they working in a factory here or what?''.