“Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right?
It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange.
Let me ask you a question, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you?”
- the character of Cobb in Christopher Nolan’s Inception
Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Allison Lu Wang (b. 1994, Los Angeles, CA) titled splash, drip, drip, woo, splash. Composed of nine paintings, 48h by 36w inches in scale, all archival ink on linen, this will be Wang’s first exhibition with the gallery. In these recent works, Allison Lu Wang depicts various landscapes that are a reflection of the world she lives in both literally and figuratively. Her cinematic use of color and manipulation of imagery create works that take the viewer on a journey through time and place within the blink of an eye.
Wang’s process of landscape painting—or one might call landscape building—pulls from disparate sources in her life, imagination, experiences and fascinations. Her process begins in an analog format sourcing various printed images cut from magazines, books, etc., as well as directly painted elements, such as an orchid in her studio rendered in oil paint. Entering the digital realm, photographs of these collages and painted images are further expanded upon and manipulated on the computer. There is always a sense of place, whether a more direct image from a street in her native Los Angeles or a scene from a favorite movie or video game. Pictorially no subject matter is treated with more or less importance, however direct cinematic and pop-cultural references can take on greater significance conceptually to the artist. Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader—consumed by paranoia, power and greed, and Cobb’s team in Inception standing on a street awaiting an unknown force take on both emotional and contextual significance to the artist—references to real life emotions played out in a fantastical realm.
In a world increasingly separating itself from a grounding force, the emotional ramifications of one’s psychological existence are explored through both formal process and subject matter. While not immediately evident at first glance, the artist has placed an image of herself in each work. An obvious signifier of the personal nature of the work, but also a nod to the human experience and our emotional capacity to understand the shift from the Information Age into the Age of Imagination. | 
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